Communicating Climate Science: A Matter of Credibility: Swedish Farmers' Perceptions of Climate-Change Information

While climate change communication research has advanced in the last 10 years, we still lack a thorough discussion on credibility aspects of climate change information and communication. At the same time, and perhaps a bit paradoxically, communication theories suggest that whether a (climate change) frame resonates with a particular audience is due partly to its perceived credibility. This paper addresses the under-researched question of how a particular audience perceive climate change information. Based on focus group discussions with Swedish farmers, this paper explores both participants’ perceptions on climate change information as well as the formation of participant perceptions. The analysis finds that participants make use of multidimensional ways of judging the adequacy of various information related to climate change. Specifically, the analysis suggests that participants hold different views concerning 1) whether consistent or contradictory climate information landscapes constitutes credible information, 2) what constitute credible knowledge production processes, e.g analytical vs experience-based approaches, 3) credibility of frame articulators. Lastly, the paper discusses how scientific evidence can be better communicated to more efficiently inform decision-making on climate change and argues for greater attention to audience segmentation based on audience perception of climate change information credibility.