Climate Change Images in Kenya’s News Photographic Representations (Published)
Visual symbolic forms dominate today’s communicative landscape. Climate change is a topical issue in societies and its debates are not solely confined to linguistic representation, but also evident in visual symbolic forms. The communicative strategy for symbolic forms enhances our understanding of climatic changes, which consequently would initiate appropriate action to counter adaptation deficit often experienced in many regions of the world. Drawing reference from the Kenyan media context, this paper focuses on news photographic representation to answer the question “Can society see the climate changing?” This paper highlights specific visual symbolic form modalities used in News broadcasts to effect the understanding of climate dynamics in Kenya. The study found out that pictorial representation in Kenya’s media triumphs in use of crisis metaphors. It found that visual forms often take lesser roles when accompanied by written texts in climate change reporting. It acknowledges that visual constructions of climate change issues in Kenya appear in both local and international media reports. Nevertheless, the authors warn that the power of photographic representations in climate change interventions should not be underestimated.
Keywords: Climate Change, Media, Photographic Representation, Symbolic Form, Visual Communication