Antal Wozniah M.A.

COP18: How different stakeholders communicate COP

COP18 (26/11/2012) – Antal Wozniak M.A. from the Department of Media & Communication Studies at the University of Mannheim describes UN climate talks as global media events, where communication is not confined to national and international outlets. Delegations and NGOs are also communicating what is happening in Doha to the world, he says.

He is here to analyse how these various stakeholders are communicating the conference. He describes the motivations behind the communications of different actors, and the range of approaches to communicating COP18. He also describes the indirect communication that goes on at the conference, where delegations communicate with each other through the media, and the affect this has on the talks.

His current research is focusing on the differences between global north and global south actors in their ability to project and communicate through the media. He notes that key political actors normally dominate mainstream coverage, but remarks that the striking visuals communicated by established NGOs, including WWF and Greenpeace, are also often picked up by the media, as climate change is traditionally hard to communicate visually.