Storying Climatically Changed Worlds — Potentials and Pitfalls of Future Journalism

Abstract

This study explores the emerging phenomenon of future climate stories in journalism: stories where the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) future scenario graphs are combined with storytelling using prior narration as a way to take the reader into climatically changed futures. By analysing five stories and interviewing the journalists behind them, the study aims to better understand narrative choices and potential challenges of such journalistic engagement with possible futures. Through perspectives of professional journalism, science fiction theory and social futures theory, the findings suggest that this journalistic form has the potential to engage readers on the topic of climate change, as it creates a close linkage between climate science and people’s experiences and emotions. By engaging with not only ecological, but also cultural and emotional tipping points, the use of prior narration in climate journalism may create cognitive estrangement similar to that of science fiction, which stimulates contemplation on the status quo and ultimately may have transformative potential.