Eloisa Loose receives CAPES award for best PhD thesis of 2017 in the area of ​​Environmental Sciences

Eloisa Loose will receive the CAPES award for best PhD thesis of the year 2017 in the area of ​​Environmental Sciences. The laureate, made a sandwich period at the CECS, under the guidance of the researcher Anabela Carvalho, who was also onde of the supervisers of her PhD, defended at the Federal University of Paraná.

According to the jury of the competition, the contribution of Eloisa Loose “will be of extreme value for the development and improvement of the area, as well as for the advancement of postgraduate and quality scientific knowledge in Brazil.”

The CAPES PhD Thesis 2017 Award from the Environmental Sciences area for the thesis “Climate Risks in the Local News Circuit: perception, communication and governance”, defended in 2016, within the framework of the Postgraduate Program in Environment and Development of UFPR (Brazil), consists of a certificate, a medal and a postdoctoral fellowship. The awards ceremony will take place in Brasilia, on December 7, 2017, at the International Convention Center of Brazil (CICB), at 5:00 p.m.

Eloisa Loose’s PhD Thesis abstract:
This research focuses on the relationship between perception, communication and governance of climate change and its risks as part of the news circuit – the circular and continuous process that includes production, text and reception of journalistic discourse – of a local newspaper. More specifically, the study focuses on the largest newspaper of the city of Curitiba, Gazeta do Povo, and on the social actors who participate in its production (information sources and journalists) and reception (readers of this daily newspaper). From an interdisciplinary and constructionist perspective, the research aims to analyze the intricacies of risk communication, through journalism, and how such discourses are interpreted and/or perceived by those readers who, somehow, are already familiarized with environmental issues. The thesis brings together contributions from the fields of Communication, with an emphasis on Journalism; Social Psychology, through the study of risk perceptions; and Environmental Studies, especially the issues of climate change, its risks and ways of coping. Thereby, the research aims to understand how journalism can contribute to improve communication on climate change and its risks and thus empower readers to face its risks, either through mitigation or adaptation. It is assumed that reports legitimized by the press interfere in the way people perceive climate risks and therefore in their engagement. Thus, the role of journalism is very relevant in the context of risk communication and climate governance. To this end, each stage in the circuit of news is investigated in order to understand how perceptions are linked to the coverage of climate change, its risks and coping actions. Methodologically, the research includes participant observation of news production routines, analysis of risk perceptions of various stakeholders through questionnaires and interviews, and framing analysis of news reports, with the ultimate goal of triangulating findings in light of the approach proposed by depth hermeneutics. The findings suggest that the perception of climate risk is removed from the daily lives of Curitiba readers, and that the journalistic mediation has amplified the global and negative effects, as well as a discussion centered on international agreements, aimed at emphasizing the responsibility of developed countries; these characteristics do not contribute to the engagement of citizens in facing climate change risks.