Colloquium Norman Schumann: Media in the Climate Crisis – How German Media Manage Humanity´s Greatest Communication Challenge

By Norman Schumann, Klima vor acht e.V.

It’s hard to imagine that the world is coming to an end, and nobody’s talking about it. Unfortunately, this happens every day in the German media, or, to put it differently, the issue is not being addressed. After more than thirty years since the establishment of the IPCC, we now know for certain that climate change is caused by human activities, and we have the power to do something about it. However, the German media has not been giving enough attention to this critical issue, making global warming the most significant communication challenge faced by humankind too.

During our presentation, we will take a journey through the German media, especially public broadcasting. We will analyze quantitative data to understand how the media reports on climate change and highlight common incorrect narratives. Additionally, we will give a brief introduction to the work of the initiative “KLIMA° vor acht“. The initiative aims to increase the coverage of “climate” topics in the German television landscape and has already achieved some notable successes in this regard.

Short CV:

Dr. Norman Schumann studied mathematics and philosophy at the Ruhr University in Bochum and at John Hopkins University in Baltimore. He has been involved in various areas of the climate movement for some time and is co-founder and spokesman of KLIMA vor Acht e.V.

He works as a data scientist and data manager in the energy sector. Since 2022, he has also been working as a freelancer at Hamburg University, Chair of Communication Science, especially Climate and Science Communication.

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