China is the world’s second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases which lead to global warming and its role in the post-Kyoto global climate negotiation is pivotal. However, compared with the rising importance of China in the global climate change, the public understanding of this issue has been extremely poor. In this thesis, the methods of media content analysis and interviews with climate scientists and science journalists are combined to reveal social, economic and scientific factors leading to the lukewarm media coverage of climate change issue. While the insufficiency of the institutional science communication has resulted in the barren media knowledge of global warming, the lack of details and controversies lowers the public interest in the theme. More systematic approaches involving boosting the public debate on climate change issues, bridging climate scientists and media, creating interactions between readers and the media coverage in climate changes are urgently needed for an effective communication of the issue.

climate change  /  global warming  /  science communication