Modul 11: Climate Communication and Storytelling

The complexity and long-term nature of climate change make it extremely difficult for both experts and advocates to communicate effectively, and for citizens and laypeople to fully understand its implications as well as the opportunities for meaningful action. In this course, students will explore the climate crisis in today’s media environment and gain practical experience by creating their own media artifacts related to climate change.

Taught entirely in English, the course combines theoretical perspectives with hands-on experience in climate communication. It follows a blended learning approach, combining asynchronous learning with a few live, interactive sessions. Students will examine how climate change is communicated across different types of media and develop their own approaches to communicating important climate-related issues.

The course is also open to students from selected partner universities of FernUniversität in Hagen. Depending on the composition of the course, this can provide opportunities to work with students from different countries and academic backgrounds and to gain international perspectives on climate communication. However, participation by international students cannot be guaranteed.

In the first phase, students will study the climate crisis and media theory and examine different forms of climate communication—from the scientific policy advice provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to climate coverage in the news, and climate messages conveyed through creative media such as literature, social media, and advertising. Based on their new critical understanding, students will then write a theoretical paper analyzing how one aspect of climate change is communicated and what this implies.

In the second phase, students will work in groups to create their own media artifacts (e.g., a short video, podcast, or fictional story) aimed at effectively communicating an important climate-related issue. Where the course composition allows, groups may include students from different countries and backgrounds, creating an opportunity to bring diverse perspectives into the collaborative project.

Learning objectives
After completing this module, students…

• understand basic facts about the climate crisis and can identify different ways in which these are presented and discussed in the media, including key narratives.
• can explain the function of media and identify the purposes and methods used by different types of media (e.g., scientific reports, news articles, literature, advertisements, and social media posts).
• have practiced being critical media consumers and understand how to curate their media intake and evaluate the bias and reliability of media sources.
• understand the particular challenges involved in communicating the complex issue of climate change.
• have gained practical experience in communicating an important climate-related issue by creating their own media artifacts in a group (such as short videos, podcasts, or blog posts).

Teaching language
This course is taught entirely in English. A good command of English is required in order to follow the course and to actively participate in the mandatory forum discussions and group work.

Dates and application
This course is offered once a year, from March until July. The final course calendar and the exact dates of the three to four live Zoom sessions will be communicated here and in the module handbook about three months in advance.

Enrollment for the next edition of the course (March–July 2027) takes place via email to infernum(at)fernuni-hagen.de starting in December 2026.

Please note that the number of participants is limited to 15. If there are more applications than available places, applicants who were unsuccessful in their applications for either of the two previous editions of the course will be given priority. All remaining places will be allocated by lottery.