Mediating the Climate Change Message: Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) of Media Practitioners in Ghana

Abstract

While scientific evidence on the human agency of climate change seems compelling, public conviction and capacity to adapt and adopt mitigation measures remain tentative among developing countries and poor populations. It throws into question the presumed essentiality of the media in Africa in increasing public awareness and informing local policy responses. This study pivots on the argument that in order to be effective stewards and purveyors of climate change information, media practitioners must themselves be demonstrably informed and keenly committed. To determine this the study used the KAP survey model to assess the understanding (Knowledge), predisposition (Attitude) and response (Practice) of Ghanaian journalists to reporting climate change. The findings showed high awareness, but low knowledge, high conviction but low engagement of media practitioners and institutions towards addressing the incidence and consequences of climate change. In effect, awareness and empathy are prerequisite factors, but they do not inevitably lead to knowledge and engagement in competently mediating the climate message. The lack of compelling correlations between specific attributes of KAP of climate change also raises doubts about the predictive power of individual vis-à-vis institutional loci of control in defining and driving specific subjects up the news values chain.