TY - JOUR

T1 - Sailing to save the planet?

T2 - Media-produced narratives of Greta Thunberg’s trip to the UN Climate Summit in German print newspapers

AU - Lütkes, Linda

AU - Tuitjer, Leonie

AU - Dirksmeier, Peter

N1 - Funding Information: The authors would like to thank Andrew Baldwin very much for his time and effort with an early version of the text. The paper has gained immensely from his helpful comments.

PY - 2023/5/15

Y1 - 2023/5/15

N2 - Narratives and stories are important communication tools and as such essential subjects of social geography. This paper analyses the retelling of Greta Thunberg’s sailing trip across the Atlantic to the Climate Action Summit in New York in 2019 in leading German newspapers and magazines and how her intentions are transformed through this reporting into different narratives. The research mainly focuses on examining the influence of space and place, as geographical research has revealed that spatial determinants are crucial in risk communication and knowledge generation on climate change but have yet to be studied considering stories. The paper, therefore, extends the story-based approach from communication sciences by geographical research on the role of space and place in action-based stories. Therefore, the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) is used to decode the spatial environment in narratives as an active element that shapes the narrative, and the way characters can (inter)act within these settings. The paper further develops the NPF framework through a geographical lens by focusing particularly on the selection options of spaces for social interactions and affective bonds. Thus, it becomes evident how spatial contexts and environments shape the interactions between individuals and crucially influence the types of narratives that emerge.

AB - Narratives and stories are important communication tools and as such essential subjects of social geography. This paper analyses the retelling of Greta Thunberg’s sailing trip across the Atlantic to the Climate Action Summit in New York in 2019 in leading German newspapers and magazines and how her intentions are transformed through this reporting into different narratives. The research mainly focuses on examining the influence of space and place, as geographical research has revealed that spatial determinants are crucial in risk communication and knowledge generation on climate change but have yet to be studied considering stories. The paper, therefore, extends the story-based approach from communication sciences by geographical research on the role of space and place in action-based stories. Therefore, the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) is used to decode the spatial environment in narratives as an active element that shapes the narrative, and the way characters can (inter)act within these settings. The paper further develops the NPF framework through a geographical lens by focusing particularly on the selection options of spaces for social interactions and affective bonds. Thus, it becomes evident how spatial contexts and environments shape the interactions between individuals and crucially influence the types of narratives that emerge.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85159953887&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1057/s41599-023-01743-6

DO - 10.1057/s41599-023-01743-6

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85159953887

VL - 10

JO - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

JF - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

IS - 1

M1 - 242

ER -