Gateway Visuals: Strategies of Climate Photographers in the Digital Age

Abstract

AbstractVisual climate change communication has seen increased scholarly attention in recent years, with a strong focus on science communication. However, less is known about the producers of climate imagery. The current paper presents results from interviews with 20 photographers engaged in climate change on the challenges they see for climate photography today and the key strategies they use to achieve reach and impact in the digital media environment. Results indicate that practitioners gravitate toward variations of a ‘gateway strategy’, where motives and forms of visual presentation are chosen as gateways to bypass the potential resistance or indifference to climate change messages. The paper proposes a typology of such visual gateway strategies.DisclaimerAs a service to authors and researchers we are providing this version of an accepted manuscript (AM). Copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proofs will be undertaken on this manuscript before final publication of the Version of Record (VoR). During production and pre-press, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal relate to these versions also. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJonas HarvardJonas Harvard is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Media- and Communication Science, Mid Sweden University and Adjunct Professor in the History of Political Discourse and Communication at the University of Jyväskylä. His research concerns the roles of technology in journalism, media history in the Nordic countries, and the transformation of local news media business in Sweden. E-mail: jonas.harvard@miun.seMats HyvönenMats Hyvönen is a Media and Communications Scholar at Uppsala University and Research Coordinator for the Engaging Vulnerability Research Program. Specializing in media history, he is interested in the vulnerability of the public sphere and how media both feed and resist that vulnerability. Mats is currently conducting research on contemporary and historical links between journalism and academic scholarship.