There are many hurdles in Africa to overcome in order to break down the barriers that prevent the majority of people from knowing and sharing information about climate change. However, this dilemma could be addressed by increasing trust in the media and news coverage (mainstream and alternative), which can only be realized by addressing the very particular concerns of different contributing communities in Africa. It is, therefore, the aim of this special issue of the Global Media journal, African Edition, to offer new insights with a view to increasing knowledge sharing capacity, improving potential collaborations, building on existing research, and creating a sense of collective responsibility towards the future among the African people.
The media have an indispensable role to play in behavioural change intervention in Africa, but the question that one keeps probing is the possible role of the media in influencing climate change action. Climate change demands both political and personal responses in all parts of the world. Effective decision making on both levels will depend on timely accurate information. The quality and quantity of journalism about climate change will, therefore, be key issues in the coming years.[1]
In every nation, the content of the crisis of hegemony tends to repeat itself as stated by Antonio Gramsci (1971) in his Selections from the Prison Notebooks (SPN):[2]
[This process] occurs either because the ruling class has failed in some major undertaking or because huge masses … have passed suddenly from a state of political passivity, and put forward demands which taken together, albeit not organicallyformulated, add up to a revolution. A “crisis of authority” is spoken of: this is precisely
the crisis of hegemony. (p. 1932 )
The crisis referred to here can be seen in the news-media coverage of climate change as different actors have failed so far to establish a global deal that would meet the challenge of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases drastically and rapidly. “… Climate change has become, in many people’s minds, the central survival issue for our species, and the Copenhagen talks provided a pivotal moment for addressing that issue. The fact that the talks failed to produce a binding agreement is therefore of some significance” (Heinberg,