Science Communication http://scx.sagepub.com/ Contesting Science by Appealing to Its Norms: Readers Discuss Climate Science in the Daily Mail Rusi Jaspal, Brigitte Nerlich and Nelya Koteyko Science Communication published online 25 September 2012 DOI: 10.1177/1075547012459274 The online version of this article can be found at: http://scx.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/09/23/1075547012459274 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for Science Communication can be found at: Email Alerts: http://scx.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://scx.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav >> OnlineFirst Version of Record - Sep 25, 2012 What is This? Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 459274 59274Science CommunicationJaspal et al. © 2011 SAGE Publications Reprints and permission: http://www. SCXXXX10.1177/10755470124 sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Science Communication Contesting Science by XX(X) 1–28 © 2012 SAGE Publications Reprints and permission: Appealing to Its Norms: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1075547012459274 Readers Discuss Climate http://scx.sagepub.com Science in the Daily Mail Rusi Jaspal1, Brigitte Nerlich1, and Nelya Koteyko2 Abstract This study examines the rhetorical aspects of social contestation of climate change in reader comments published in the Daily Mail, subsequent to climategate. The following themes are reported: (1) denigration of climate scientists to contest hegemonic representations, (2) delegitimiza- tion of pro–climate change individuals by disassociation from science, and (3) outright denial: rejecting hegemonic social representations of climate change. The study outlines the discursive strategies employed in order to construct social representations of climate change, to contest alternative rep- resentations, and to convince others of the validity of these representations. It examines how social representations of science are formed, maintained, and disseminated. Keywords climate change, skepticism, communication, social media, social representation, public understanding, critical discourse analysis, social psychology 1 University of Nottingham, UK 2 University of Leicester, UK Corresponding Author: Rusi Jaspal, Institute for Science and Society, School of Sociology and Social Policy, Law and Social Sciences Building, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK Email: rusi.jaspal@gmail.com Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 2 Science Communication XX(X) Climate change has become one of the most pressing global challenges for science, society, and science communication. Campaigners have stepped up efforts to encourage engagement with climate change (Crompton & Kasser, 2010), while some groups of so-called climate skeptics or deniers have mobi- lized in order to expose the perceived inaccuracies of climate science (Mann, 2012; Montford, 2010). The debate about climate change and climate science is carried out not only in the traditional media and in the cybersphere but also in intermediate spaces, such as online reader comments left after the publica- tion of articles about climate change in major newspapers. In order to understand the diverse public responses to climate change, social scientists have turned their attention to analyzing the content and communica- tive strategies of major channels of societal information, particularly the news media. This tradition of research examines trends in media reporting (Boykoff, 2011; Brulle, Carmichael, & Jenkins, 2012; Jaspal & Nerlich, 2012). However, there has been little attention to the laypeople’s talk and text about climate change in the media sphere. In this article, we argue that the field of science communication can benefit from the systematic analysis of user-generated con- tent, in this case online reader comments on media reporting of climate change. This article examines the legacy of the 2009 “climategate” affair on public perception of climate science and science in general as expressed in a small sample of reader comments, using a mixed-methods approach. The term climategate is commonly used to refer to the unauthorized online release of thousands of e-mails and other documents from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit in November 2009 (Nerlich, 2010). Some critics of the theory of anthropogenic (or human-induced) climate change used the contents of these e-mails to challenge mainstream climate science and to accuse scientists of dishonesty and fraudulent tactics to side- line certain types of research. The Climatic Research Unit scientists were subsequently cleared of wrongdoing in various inquiries. However, climate- gate has continued to have a discernible impact on public trust in climate science (Leiserowitz, Maibach, Roser-Renouf, Smith, & Dawson, in press) and has also sparked a debate about the norms and ethical behavior of climate scientists (Grundmann, 2012a, 2012b). In this article, we examine the rhe- torical aspects of readers’ comments triggered by the climategate affair and the ways that climategate provided laypeople with new ways of thinking and communicating about science in general and climate science in particular. Social Representations Theory This study is concerned with how readers respond rhetorically to the issue of climate change, complementing existing research into cognitive, and particularly Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 Jaspal et al. 3 attitudinal, responses (Leiserowitz, 2006). To study the rhetorical aspects of the reader comments, we use both social representations theory as a theo- retical tool and critical discourse analysis as a methodological one. Social representations theory aims to study human responses, both cognitive and rhetorical, to scientific information, by treating seriously the information that circulates in society and the ideas in people’s minds (Billig, 1988). A social representation is defined as “a system of values, ideas and practices” regard- ing a given social object (Moscovici, 1973, p. xiii; Moscovici, 1988), as well as “the elaborating of a social object by the community for the purpose of behaving and communicating” (Moscovici, 1963, p. 251). Social representa- tions emerge within a particular context and within particular social groups and create what one might call a shared social reality in which discussion of issues such as climate change can take place (Billig, 1988). In his analysis of how representations are formed, Moscovici (1988) out- lines two processes that structure the emergence of particular social represen- tations, namely, anchoring and objectification. Anchoring refers to the process of making something unfamiliar understandable by linking it to something familiar (Moscovici, 1988). For a community to develop an under- standing of a complex scientific phenomenon such as climate change, it must first be named and attributed familiar characteristics. For instance, Jaspal and Nerlich (2012) have shown that in 1988, the British press began to anchor global warming to imagery of widespread destruction and catastrophe, implicitly highlighting the need for mitigation against climate change. Objectification is the process whereby unfamiliar and abstract objects are transformed into concrete and “objective” commonsense realities. Physical characteristics are attributed to a nonphysical entity, essentially “materializ- ing” the immaterial. For example, using social representations theory, Olausson (2011) has shown that visual representations of polar bears and flooding can come to function as “evidence” of climate change. In terms of social representational structure, Abric (2001) has distin- guished between the core and peripheral elements of a representation. The central or structuring “core” of the social representation attributes meaning and value to its other elements and determines the nature of the links between these elements. The “core” unifies the representation and is thus its most stable element in evolving contexts, while peripheral elements are organized around the core and provide it with context. They serve to “concretize,” adapt, and defend the central core, rendering it intelligible and communica- ble. New incoming information can be incorporated into the representation in the form of peripheral elements. Previous social representations work has not examined these structural elements of social representations of climate change. This article, by contrast, provides insight into the structure of emerging Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 4 Science Communication XX(X) representations of climate change and how structural factors contribute to the social and political contestation of climate change in reader comments. Social representations are shared and accepted by individuals to differing degrees (Moscovici, 1988). According to social representation theory, hege- monic social representations are shared consensually by members of a group; they are coercive and relatively uniform. In Western European countries, hegemonic representations concerning climate change construct it, on the whole, as (1) a genuine, serious environmental problem that requires mitiga- tion, (2) caused largely by human/industrial activities (Olausson, 2010). Conversely, polemic representations are generated in the course of social conflict and are characterized by antagonistic relations between groups. Typically, polemic representations challenge or contest hegemonic represen- tations. In Western European societies, polemic representations construct climate change as (1) a “naturally induced” environmental phenomenon that cannot be mitigated against or (2) a nonexistent “scam” perpetrated by gov- ernment, scientists, and other institutions for financial and/or political rea- sons (Nerlich & Koteyko, 2009). In the British context at least, print and online media constitute important “discursive sites” within which hegemonic and polemic social representa- tions of climate change are regularly created, disseminated, and contested (Boykoff, 2011). Carvalho (2007) remarks that “[a]s a forum for the dis- courses of others and a speaker in their own right, the media have a key part in the production and transformation of meanings” (p. 224). Accordingly, the press has been described in terms of a “battlefield of knowledge” (Boykoff, 2009, p. 340). It performs an agenda-setting function, providing laypeople with social stimuli for thinking and talking about climate change. The Construction and Contestation of Climate Change Climate change has been described as one of the most politicized scientific issues attracting abundant media coverage (Deming, 2005). While main- stream press coverage has been examined extensively (Boykoff, 2009, 2011; Carvalho, 2007), online debates and representations of climate change have not yet been studied in detail (Brulle et al., 2012; Porter & Hellsten, 2011; Valdez, Nerlich, & Koteyko, 2012). Using both print and online media, climate campaigners and climate skeptics/ deniers have each disseminated their respective social representations of cli- mate change to the general public, creating “ripples” in public perceptions of climate change. For example, survey data collected in the United Kingdom show that public belief in climate change dropped from 91% in 2005 to 78% Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 Jaspal et al. 5 in 2010 and that climate skepticism has increased from 4% in 2005 to 15% in 2010 (Poortinga, Spence, Whitmarsh, Capstick, & Pidgeon, 2011). These data seem to indicate that antagonism between what one may loosely call two camps, especially prominent in the United States since climategate (Brulle et al., 2012; Nerlich, 2010; Painter, 2010), may have influenced public under- standing of climate change, potentially resulting, at least for a while, in a decline in public trust in climate science, as well as increased skepticism concerning the impact and even existence of climate change. Climategate provided some climate skeptics with an opportunity to repre- sent climate science as faulty, fraudulent, and even a “scam,” a social repre- sentation that had already been present (Nerlich & Koteyko, 2009) but now seemed to be based on “evidence” revealed in the e-mails between climatolo- gists. In this article, we examine how consumers, rather than producers of media reports, talk about climate change in the aftermath of the climategate affair and how they use this new “evidence” rhetorically and argumentatively (Anderson, 1997). Research into reader comments is still in its infancy, although the value of user-generated discursive material has led to studies of reader responses to BBC news articles concerning avian influenza (Rowe, Hawkes, & Houghton, 2008), online comments on YouTube videos concerning climategate (Porter & Hellsten, 2011), and indeed a corpus-assisted study of reader comments after climategate (Koteyko, Jaspal, & Nerlich, 2012). These studies support the argument of Richardson and Stanyer (2011) that the systematic analysis of reader comments is essential if “we are to move away from optimistic speculation [regarding the impact of news reporting upon public thinking] and build a fuller picture of the expression of reader opinion in the online environment” (p. 984). Reader comments provide an ideal case study for the examination of the rhetorical aspects of social and political contestation, since (a) they can be anonymous; (b) there is scope for interaction between commentators, providing insight into argumentation; (c) they have the poten- tial to influence others’ comments; and (d) they may reflect more widely distributed social representations and collective beliefs particular to at least a subsection of the British public. Reader engagement is an important area of investigation primarily because it complements existing analyses of media representations of climate change. It can provide insights into the uses of (media-generated) social representations of climate change among laypeople and, in particular, how media representations are taken up and transformed in the social domain (i.e., in layperson discourse). This article examines the rhetorical aspects of social and political con- testation of climate change within these discursive sites, subsequent to a Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 6 Science Communication XX(X) politically polarizing event such as climategate. The aim is to reveal the dis- cursive strategies employed by laypeople in order to construct particular ver- sions (i.e., social representations) of climate change, to contest alternative representations, and to convince others of the validity of one’s constructed version of climate change. Theoretically, these aims reflect the concern in social representations theory with how social representations are formed, maintained, and disseminated (Breakwell, 1993) Method Most national newspapers in the United Kingdom now provide space for online reader comments. For this article, we chose a British tabloid news- paper, Daily Mail, because it is one of the three biggest selling newspapers in Britain (which are The Sun, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror). Of the three, only the Daily Mail website database contained a sufficiently large number of reader comments, providing a corpus of data suitable for corpus- assisted critical discourse analysis (see below). Although our focus on one newspaper outlet does not allow us to make more generalizable statements regarding general tabloid reader engagement with climate change, a key advantage of this smaller scale, though in-depth, case study approach is that it provides detailed, nuanced, and contextually sensitive insights into comments provided in this clearly very influential tabloid. Our qualitative analysis complements quantitative research in this area (Koteyko et al., 2012). We focused on reader comments on articles published on the Daily Mail website (http://www.dailymail.co.uk) in a 1-year period, from January 1 to December 31, 2010. The search term “climate change” generated 355 news articles, and these 355 articles attracted 4,698 reader comments in total. The term reader comment refers to each single text entry posted on the newspaper website in response to a given news article. These varied in size—while some entries consisted of a few words, others contained several sentences. This sampling period was deemed appropriate, as it provided some temporal dis- tance from climategate (which occurred in November 2009). By January 2010, the issue had begun to “settle” in the media sphere, albeit becoming part of social thinking on climate change (Nerlich, 2010), and therefore pro- vided a potentially less polarized debate than in the immediate aftermath of climategate. As noted, this sampling procedure provided 4,698 comments, which enabled us to conduct a combined quantitative and qualitative analy- sis. Koteyko et al. (2012) present the analysis of frequent lexical patterns found in the whole corpus with the help of the lexical analysis software Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 Jaspal et al. 7 WordSmith Tools (Scott, 2011),1 whereas this article deals with a qualitative critical discourse analysis of a subcorpus. Specifically, the analysis below is based on a subcorpus of comments where two of the most frequent content2 words in the whole corpus—the words “science” and “scientist/s”—were used (in total 1,907 comments). As a high frequency of word use may be indicative of the popularity of certain topics (in this case, discussions to do with climate science), we decided to explore these comments in more detail as a potential source of social representations and as indicators of changes in how laypeople communicate about science. In this way, the decision to focus on the comments containing the words “science” and “scientist/s” was driven by the fact that these two words occur with the highest frequency among the content words in a given collection of comments. Analytical Approach This article presents a fine-grained critical discourse analysis of reader com- ments (van Dijk, 1991, 1993). This method is a language-oriented analytical technique for identifying patterns of meaning within a data set with particu- lar foci on the micro and macro levels of linguistic analysis. At the micro level, critical discourse analysis allows the analyst to examine the impact of particular lexical items, syntax, and rhetorical techniques (e.g., use of meta- phor) for meaning production. For example, Nerlich (2010) has found that the metaphor of “religious preaching” was used by climate skeptics in order to describe climate science communication. This essentially served to attach negative meaning to climate science. At a macro level, there is scope for exploring intertextual understanding, that is, how broader social representa- tions (e.g., associated with climategate) can in turn impinge on meaning production in text. For instance, one would expect adjectival constructions (used in relation to climate scientists) such as “money-grabbing” and “dis- honest” to resonate with readers, given that climategate was pervasively regarded as evidencing a malicious “plot” by scientists (Montford, 2010). In short, critical discourse analysis recognizes that there is a reciprocal relation- ship between macro-level social representations and micro-level text. The patterns of meaning identified in critical discourse analysis are represented as “discourses.” The method provides insight into how “reality,” as we understand it, is constructed (rather than reflected) in talk and text. Thus, we are not looking for an “objective” reality but rather the discursive resources (e.g., metaphor, argument) that are employed in order to construct it (Burr, 2003). This analytical approach acknowledges the possibilities offered by, and potential constraints imposed by, social power relations (van Dijk, 1993). Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 8 Science Communication XX(X) It helps reveal the rhetorical strategies for affirming and contesting hege- monic and polemic representations. Procedure The subcorpus of 1,907 comments containing the words “science” and “scientist/s” was initially read repeatedly by the first two authors in order for them to acquire a high level of familiarity with the comments and to facilitate in-depth discussion. The right margin was used to note initial observations that captured essential qualities (i.e., overall substantive points being made), units of meaning (e.g., evaluative aspects), and apparent rhetorical tech- niques (e.g., use of metaphor) within the data. The authors discussed their respective initial codes, which included inter alia the general tone of the comment (e.g., irony, sarcasm), particular forms of language (e.g., meta- phor), comparisons, categorizations, and emerging patterns (e.g., recurrent use of irony/certain metaphors) in the data. The authors discussed potentially idiosyncratic interpretations of the data until consensus was reached. These initial codes were collated into preliminary discursive themes, which cap- tured the essential qualities of the comments analyzed. There were 14 pre- liminary themes: (1) “Lying as an inherent quality of climate scientists,” (2) “Constructing a suitable position for contesting climate science,” (3) “Accentuating the perceived financial benefits of climate change,” (4) “Carbon taxes as a source of income,” (5) “Malicious collusion of science and politics,” (6) “Victimhood of laypeople,” (7) “Rhetorical infantilization of scientists,” (8) “Attribution of climate science expertise to nonscientists,” (9) “Attribution of authoritarianism to climate science,” (10) “Accentuating the uncertainty of climate science,” (11) “Reconstructing the criteria for contributing to the climate debate,” (12) “Anchoring climate science to scam,” (13) “Using climategate as an explanation,” and (14) “Highlighting the ‘purity’ of science.” These 14 themes were arranged into a coherent nar- rative structure, which best reflected the analysis of the reader comments. This process resulted in the identification of three superordinate discursive themes, which are presented in the Analysis section below. For instance, preliminary Themes 1, 3, 8, and 11 (above) were merged together, given that the analysis revealed substantive and theoretical overlap between them, in order to construct the superordinate theme “Delegitimization of pro–climate change individuals by disassociation from science.” In addition to identify- ing the substantive themes prevalent in the corpus of reader comments, we examined the rhetorical functions (e.g., delegitimization, denial) that seemed to be performed by the initial codes that we identified. More specifically, Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 Jaspal et al. 9 critical discourse analysis enabled us to examine the performative functions of language use (i.e., to understand not only the meaning of the comments but also the ways in which they might support or give rise to certain types of social action). The vast majority of the initial codes fitted cohesively within the three superordinate themes outlined in the analysis. There was a theoretical concern with the use and development of social representations of climate change in reader commentary, rather than an empirical concern with providing an overview of what the public thinks about an environmental issue (see Rose et al., 1995). Thus, extracts from the comments are selected in order to make overarching theoretical points rather than to reflect general numerical tendencies across the data set. Although our analysis accurately reflects the dominant themes that addressed our research aims, we could select only a small number of extracts as illustrations of the discussion of substantive and theoretical points in this article. Thus, while our critical discourse analysis is based on the analysis of 1,907 comments, we present only a small number of illustrative quotes. In the extracts presented below, ellipses indicate where material has been excised; and other material within square brackets is for clarification. Information regarding the sources of reader comments (i.e., titles of news articles that provoked particular comments and their publication dates) is included in the Notes section. Analysis The following superordinate themes are discussed: (1) “Denigration of cli- mate scientists to contest hegemonic representations,” (2) “Delegitimization of pro–climate change individuals by disassociation from science,” and (3) “Outright denial: rejecting hegemonic social representations of climate change.” Denigration of Climate Scientists to Contest Hegemonic Representations There was a pervasive tendency for commentators to denigrate climate sci- ence. The aim was to delegitimize the “science” on which hegemonic social representations of climate change are based: that is, the dominant view of climate change as being exacerbated by the production of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide) emitted by human activity. This overarching delegitimizing process enabled commentators to contest, though not neces- sarily to reject in its entirety, the social representation that climate change is Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 10 Science Communication XX(X) occurring (and man-made). In the following extract, for instance, the repre- sentation that climate change is occurring seems “too” hegemonic to reject: (1) I find it impossible to deny that “climate change” is occurring . . . the place [planet] is warming up and the general trend is the “ice-cap” is melting, Greenland is now green not white, etc. Etc.3,4 The social representation that climate change exists is anchored to per- sonal observations that “the place is warming up” and to the “general trend” that the ice cap is melting. This demonstrates the hegemony of the representa- tion, rendering it difficult to reject (Breakwell, 1993). However, the same commentator seizes the opportunity to delegitimize rhetorically the scientists who create and disseminate these hegemonic representations of climate change: (2) What I have trouble with is that is all down to “carbon” I feel that the scientists have not been completely honest with their research . . . the “sharp operators” amongst us have seen a good way to separate us gullible types from our money by using a “feel good” factor to do it, whilst at the same time doing nothing for our environment!5 Although the commentator may feel unable to reject the social representa- tion itself, they nonetheless challenge the peripheral element of the represen- tation that it “is all down to ‘carbon.’” This challenging of the peripheral element is supported rhetorically by reproducing the emerging social repre- sentation that “scientists have not been completely honest with their research.” This polemic representation gained particular momentum subsequent to cli- mategate (Nerlich, 2010). This is one way of rhetorically challenging a hege- monic representation. The strategic invocation of a competing polemic social representation can contest a peripheral element of the representation, which can in turn undermine the representation as a whole. This can disrupt the relationship between the “core” of the representation and its peripheral ele- ment, whose primary aim is to support the “core” (Abric, 2001). Furthermore, in Extract 2 the constructed dishonesty of scientists is in turn anchored to politicians, who are ironically constructed as manipulating “us gullible types” and watering down what is still posited as “good science.” The primary con- cern of politicians is constructed as being “our money” rather than the envi- ronment. Collectively, these rhetorical strategies seem to perform the function of constructing scientists as inherently fraudulent. Through the process of anchoring (Moscovici, 1988), some of the negative, denigrating characteristics attributed to politicians are implicitly associated Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 Jaspal et al. 11 with or transferred to scientists who, it is argued, have “not been completely honest with their research.” Indeed, the anchoring of science to politics was observable in the whole corpus of comments, as exemplified by Extract 3: (3) Science is the search for truth. Politics is the generation of lies to support personal agendas. The two do not mix. Science is likened unto fine wine. Lies, unto sewage. So how much sewage is acceptable in your wine? How much feces will YOU personally swallow? . . . If these “models” are so accurate, why was data omitted? That is the practice of a politician, not a scientist. The practice of a child, not an adult.6 While science (overall) is constructed in terms of “the search for truth,” politics is depicted as “the generation of lies to support personal agendas.” The commentator separates the two constructs theoretically, while arguing that in the domain of climate science they have become entwined. Thus, the negative characteristics attributed to politics (i.e., the metaphors of sewage and feces; lies) are generalized to climate science, given the constructed simi- larities between the two constructs. Crucially, the hegemonic representation of climate science as a consensus-based aid to policy making is being chal- lenged through its anchoring to politics. In addition to climate science being subsumed under politics (itself a caricature of politics as being entirely based on lies), it is also rhetorically positioned as childish, in the sense of a child fabricating a world through something like pretend play. This construction of climate science as political and childish scheming is contrasted with a very traditional image of science as purveyor of authoritative truth (Agazzi, 2004), which is not contested. Hegemonic representations of climate change can also be challenged by contesting the legitimacy of the source of these representations (Jaspal & Cinnirella, 2010). In the following extract, the interpretation of scientific findings is rhetorically distanced from the exclusive domain of scientists as a privileged source of knowledge and expertise: (4) You don’t need to be a scientist to understand scientific findings. Having a PhD I’m sure helps if your trying to perform research, but is no means necessary. Of course it’ll increase your credibility, but you don’t need to spend eight years in school to be educated . . . I know many people who have gone to school and don’t understand the simplest concepts, sometimes even in their own field. My pint is, don’t feel intimated by someones title, just because they might have learned more about a particular subject does not mean they are smarter . . . Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 12 Science Communication XX(X) Most papers have money and an agenda behind them, just because its written by a “scientist” doesn’t mean its not intended to be misleading (even if its technically accurate).7 Here the commentator seems to be establishing a suitable social position from which to contest hegemonic representations of climate change. The commentator questions the legitimacy of existing power relations between scientists and laypeople, challenging the authoritativeness and hegemony of scientists. Although a PhD “helps” in the research process, it is constructed as being unnecessary, particularly in order to “understand” scientific research findings. This account aims to empower laypeople to take a stance on hege- monic representations of climate change. The commentator associates com- mon errors, bias, and “false reasoning” with scientists, who typically are socially represented in terms of precision and accuracy (Agazzi, 2004). In the final sentence, the extract introduces an additional peripheral element, namely, that scientists can actively intend their scientific papers to be “mis- leading,” since there is a financial “agenda” (which links this representation to the representation of political corruption of science). The peripheral ele- ments that (a) in “real terms” there are few differences between scientists and laypeople and (b) there are financial incentives for the publication of deliber- ately misleading science, collectively, construct a delegitimizing social rep- resentation of climate scientists as untrustworthy. Furthermore, having attenuated power differentials between scientist and layperson, readers are implicitly encouraged to take a favorable stance on this delegitimizing repre- sentation of climate science. This performs a “hegemonizing” function vis-à- vis the representation. The second peripheral element of this delegitimizing representation con- cerning the deliberate “falseness” of climate science is further developed in other extracts in the corpus: (5) Well perhaps if these “scientists” had not used false research, lied and been found out, they would not have been treated badly.8 (6) Why are the police not questioning the “scientists” putting out false information supporting global warming?9 (7) I suppose when being funded and controlled by a corrupt govern- ment the departments concerned would have to employ scientists who could be bought—which is what appears to have happened in this case. They should not be allowed to get away with this. They CHEATED to Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 Jaspal et al. 13 further the purposes of the carbon credits crew, they knew what they were doing.10 In response to an article describing Prince Charles’s criticism of what he called the “appalling treatment” of scientists working at the University of East Anglia (i.e., the way their work was attacked by some climate skeptics after the release of the scientists’ personal e-mails), the author of Extract 5 constructs a rationale and justification of this treatment by invoking “false research,” lies, and hypocrisy. As in Extract 2, an implicit distinction is drawn between good science and bad science, good scientists and bad scientists, where the image of good science and scientists conforms to established norms of science, whereas climate scientists are positioned as breaching these norms and as being corrupted by politics and money. Similarly, in Extracts 6 and 7, the peripheral element of financially moti- vated false research is reiterated, although here it is constructed specifically in terms of a criminal act worthy of police attention. This serves to accentuate the legal, not only moral, severity of the alleged behavior. The “cheating” of scientists is attributed to the financial benefits allegedly associated with “car- bon credits.” Discrediting scientists in this way is rather novel, as it links climate science directly to climate policy, which sets or manages “carbon credits.” The possibilities to engage in fraud in the latter are projected directly onto the former. The peripheral element of financial gain is most effective in its support for and reinforcement of the polemic representation that climate scientists are untrustworthy. Overall, climate science is socially represented as inherently fraudulent and subservient to politics and finance (greed). Delegitimization of Pro–Climate Change Individuals by Disassociation From Science Several comments conversely accepted positive social representations of sci- ence but rhetorically disassociated climatologists and climate campaigners from the category “science.” For instance, Extract 8 distances Al Gore from “science,” which is interesting in itself, as he is not actually a scientist: (8) Don’t forget who started this Global Panic. It was Al Gore. Gore stood to gain hundreds of millions of dollars if the U.S. and other countries enacted laws he was pushing to reduce Carbon in the atmo- sphere. This is not Gore’s first try at global panic for financial gain. Remember the Ozone layer crisis he created about 15 years ago. He claimed that the Ozone layer was collasping and would cause world Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 14 Science Communication XX(X) ruin if we did not pass laws to protect the Ozone . . . Gore is not the Scientist he pretends.11 The “Global Panic” of climate change is attributed almost entirely to Al Gore, a former U.S. presidential candidate and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his climate activism (Hulme, 2009). The commentator distances climate science from the domain of science and constructs it in terms of a scheme to “gain hundreds of millions of dollars.” Again, there seems to be an underlying social representation at work here that dissociates (pure or proper) science from money and therefore claims that any contact between science and money renders science immediately impure, improper, fraudulent, or untrustworthy; money is depicted as tainting or sullying the “purity” of sci- ence. In this context, climate change is represented as a moneymaking scheme rather than a scientific reality and climate science as improper science. Similarly, the commentator constructs the “Ozone layer crisis” as a “cre- ation” of Al Gore (also see Extract 8). The commentator constructs climate change and ozone depletion as the exclusive domain of scientists, from which Al Gore is rhetorically excluded. This serves to represent Al Gore as an imposter, on one hand, and essentially disqualifies him from “creating” what is regarded as “this Global Panic,” on the other. Similarly, the commentator in Extract 9 does not delegitimize the catego- ries “science” or “scientist” per se but rather distances pro–climate change individuals from this domain. In this extract, a scientist is delegitimized by being positioned as “just an (Indian) engineer.” Like Extract 8, this also implies some sort of pretense. In both cases the efforts of pro–climate change individuals at making or advising on climate change policy are undermined by dismissing their legitimate associations with science. (9) Climate always changes, so why are we trying to stop it. We just saw the lies about glaciers retreating apparently based on a comment by some Indian chap, who now admits he was just “speculating,” and this is used by IPCC as evidence. The head of this organisation turns out to be not “The worlds top climate scientist!” As the BBC would have it, but a railway engineer, with vested business interests. Then theres “climategate,” thriving polar bears, sea levels rising modestly since the last ice age, and not threatening pacific islands at all. The list goes on and on and on and on.12 The commentator in Extract 9 begins by acknowledging the hegemonic rep- resentation that the climate is changing, while emphasizing a peripheral Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 Jaspal et al. 15 element of this representation that it constitutes a largely natural, rather than human-induced, process (Jaspal & Nerlich, 2012). The commentator’s obser- vation that there have been recent “lies about glaciers retreating” serves to jus- tify rhetorically the position, since it essentially constructs a growing “culture” of lies surrounding climatology. Climategate serves as an important rhetorical anchor and is implicitly linked to “glacier-gate,” which seemed to provide further “evidence” for lying and cheating by climate scientists (Walsh, 2010). The commentators lend credibility to their social representational posi- tion by delegitimizing the disseminator of these “lies.” Extract 9 refers to Dr. Rajendra Pachauri (the former chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) not in terms of his professional or scientific posi- tion but rather in terms of “some Indian chap.” On one hand, the climate scientist is distanced from the domain of science, thereby disqualifying him rhetorically from making scientific assertions (see also Carvalho, 2007). The adjective “some” constructs him as an unknown, interchangeable figure. The invocation of the scientist’s ethno-national background renders this category more salient than the one of “scientist,” potentially activating images of for- eignness and ineligibility to make scientific assertions. Similarly, van Dijk (1991) has shown how the media’s accentuation of irrelevant elements of an individual’s identity can help undermine the credibility of the individual’s assertions in the eyes of the reader. The delegitimization of the scientist is further reinforced by the commentator’s use of the colloquial, and in this con- text derogatory, noun “chap,” constructing him in terms of a layperson rather than as a climate scientist (which contrasts with the appeal to laypeople’s expertise in Extract 4). Here too, vested business interests, financial incen- tive, and bureaucratic greed exemplify the (professional) distance of pro– climate change individuals from the domain of science. Crucially, it is not the domain of science that is problematized but, rather, pro–(anthropogenic) cli- mate change individuals, by virtue of their rhetorical distancing from the domain of science. Conversely, anti–(anthropogenic) climate change indi- viduals are posited as representing “true” science. The contestation of hegemonic representations requires a “strong” speak- ing position, which can be achieved by questioning traditional “criteria” for making scientific assertions (see Extract 4). In Extract 10, the commentator does this by contrasting his own scientific background with the nonscientific background of Prince Charles as well as that of climate scientists other than himself (“so-called scientists”): (10) Charles is not a scientist. I am. Charles thinks that the treatment of the “climategate” so-called scientists was appalling. What appals Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 16 Science Communication XX(X) me is that those so-called scientists have been allowed to continue with their disgraceful pseudo-science. Many other scientists, some of them distinguished and eminent, are equally appalled by the disgraceful and unscientific antics revealed by the climategate information, though we had already been aware of those antics even before that information provided the confirmation. Like many others, I have not found one shred of convincing evidence to support the hypothesis of man-made global warming. What I have found is that there is an abundance of evidence to the contrary, all of which is being studiously ignored. Ignoring inconvenient data is not what real scientists do. Nor do real scientists manipulate data to make it look as if it supports a pre- conceived idea.13 The commentator recategorizes hegemonic representations of climate sci- ence in terms of “pseudo-science.” “Many other scientists” are said to share the view that such pseudo-science is “disgraceful,” “appalling,” and, perhaps most importantly, “unscientific.” This constructs the representation as con- sensual. The commentator legitimizes his own evaluation of “pseudo- science” by positioning himself as a “real” scientist (vis-à-vis Prince Charles; Davies & Harré, 1990). Climategate is represented as “confirming,” rather than necessarily revealing, the alleged wrongdoing. Having represented him- self as a scientist, the commentator proceeds to contest hegemonic represen- tations of human-induced climate change by denying the existence of “convincing (scientific) evidence.” Conversely, “so-called scientists” are represented as denying “evidence to the contrary.” This enables the commen- tator to construct mainstream climate science as “not what real scientists do.” The overarching aim here is to delegitimize climate scientists. Outright Denial: Rejecting Hegemonic Social Representations of Climate Change Climategate may rhetorically empower individuals to deny climate change in its entirety and to thereby reject hegemonic representations of climate change. For instance, some commentators rejected the role of human beings in (anthropogenic) climate change: (11) Perhaps now people will come to realise that man-made global warming is a big scam. It’s an excuse for politicians to tax us in the name of “green taxes”; it’s an excuse for researchers with green agen- das to get huge grants and government funding (wrong agenda, no Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 Jaspal et al. 17 grants of course); it’s an excuse for stealth taxes of billion (possibly trillions) via carbon trading schemes; and it’s an excuse for the hypoc- risy and unseemly money-grabbing seen in Copenhagen.14 The “big scam” of “man-made global warming” is constructed as com- monsensical knowledge, which people should now “realize.” The commenta- tor attributes peripheral elements of meaning to the polemic social representation that “man-made global warming is a big scam.” First, it is a political scheme to generate income from “green taxes” and “carbon trading schemes”; and second, it is an academic scheme to generate “huge” research grants. Money is again the rhetorical anchor that commentators use to under- mine, denigrate, and reject climate science and scientists. These peripheral elements are reinforced through the observation of “unseemly money-grabbing,” which is attributed to politicians and scientists who disseminate the hege- monic representation contested by the commentator. This is consistent with the peripheral element identified in Extract 3, namely, that there are financial incentives for the development of climate science. Here this peripheral ele- ment supports the polemic representation that man-made climate change does not exist (Abric, 2001). This essentially attributes meaning to the polemic representation, lending it further credibility and providing scope for its “hegemonization” (Jaspal & Yampolsky, 2011). In the same comment post, the commentator delegitimizes climate scien- tists by, again, drawing on climategate. Anchoring the representation that climate change is a scam to climategate serves to undermine the hegemonic representation of climate change: (12) As the emails and computer programmes hacked from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia proved these so-called climate scientists have fiddled the data and suppressed any dissent by devious means. We are being manipulated and ripped off. Thank you Daily Mail for showing some guts and printing this story. Maybe you can go all the way and reveal just how much this rotten money-making sceme is costing us already.15 In Extract 12, use of the verb “to prove” suggests unequivocal evidence to support the claim that “so-called scientists,” that is, imposters, have fabricated data and stifled debate regarding climate change “by devious means.” This version of events challenges usual ways of thinking about scientists. There is a discursive polarization of “us versus them,” whereby scientists are attrib- uted a malevolent authoritarian position, while “we” are positioned within Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 18 Science Communication XX(X) the category of victimhood as sufferers of tyranny, manipulation, and embez- zlement (Davies & Harré, 1990). The “rotten moneymaking scheme” of sci- entists is represented as having negative implications for “us,” that is, laypeople. Accordingly, there is a collectivization of in-group victimhood (Jaspal & Nerlich, 2012). The rhetorical processes of positioning and anchor- ing perform an important evaluative function, specifying the “good” and the “bad,” the powerful and the weak. The rhetorical polarization of “us” versus “them” establishes credibility for the polemic representation of climate change as a “scam.” This is achieved partly by denigrating not only the climate scientists who are seen as the pri- mary disseminators of the hegemonic representations but also the “believers” who passively accept the representations: (13) The climate change scam gets better and better, when will you believers WAKE UP to this, it is a SCAM nothing more or less we are being manipulated by scientists who if they do not agree with the cli- mate change clap trap get their funding stopped . . . it will cost the average person in the street very dearly indeed.16 Extract 13 addresses “believers” in the second-person narrative, which constructs an in-group versus an out-group, as described above. More spe- cifically, “believers” are constructed as being naive and unaware of the “cli- mate change scam” and are therefore urged to “wake up” to the (constructed) reality of the “climate change scam.” The category “believer” evokes con- notations of religious belief and orthodoxy, suggesting uncritical acceptance and irrational conformity. This implicitly belittles those individuals who accept and endorse hegemonic representations of climate change. Establishing the peripheral element that endorsing this representation will “cost the aver- age person in the street dearly” inculpates the “believers” and negativizes them. This peripheral element may be regarded as an elaboration of the peripheral element that climate science is financially motivated. The negativ- ization of “believers” constitutes an important rhetorical strategy for reject- ing hegemonic representations of climate change. To reject this hegemonic representation is to express dissent and can potentially enhance one’s distinc- tiveness as a knower of “truth”; this has been referred to as negativism (Apter, 1983). Rhetorical negativism of this kind serves to redefine the rationale for hegemonic representations of climate change and to reattribute the contents of the representations to malevolent ulterior motives (e.g., greed). This justi- fies rejection of the representations, as illustrated in Extract 14: Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 Jaspal et al. 19 (14) Your an stereo typical Envirofascist, You have to bring a debate about meat eating to an personal attack on others who do not conform to our own narrow mined view. And I also challenge you to provide an educated counter argument to what all the world leaders and scientists (You know the ones, Hacked emails spinning and tricks spring to mind) and now saying is what they believe is Climate change/Global warming . . . . Of course If we could trust or believe these lying Tax grabbing world leaders, or these money grabbing grant taking scientists.17 This comment was posted in response to an earlier comment from a reader, which was supportive of hegemonic representations of climate change and critical of the emerging polemic representations of climate change as a “scam.” The commentator positions this reader metaphorically in terms of an “Envirofascist.” This provides those holding hegemonic rep- resentations of climate change with a “concrete” culturally accessible iden- tity and thereby “objectifies” them (Moscovici & Hewstone, 1983). It invites the perception of “believers” as “fascists,” that is, authoritarian, aggressive, and averse to debate. This point is reinforced through the commentator’s claim that the comment constitutes a “grown-up debate” compared to the implied approach of “Envirofascists.” This infantilizes scientists and envi- ronmentalists, who are portrayed as bullies (see also Extract 3). Anchoring the belief that climate change exists to “Envirofascism” connects with the positioning of climate scientists as authoritarian (bullying) figures who stifle debate (see Extract 12). The perceived disseminators of the hegemonic social representations are denigrated in terms of “money grabbing grant tak- ing scientists” and “tax grabbing world leaders.” The use of periphrastic adjectival constructions to qualify the categories “scientist” and “world leader” serves to anchor these categories to negative characteristics, making them cognitively inseparable (Jaspal, 2011). This then provides acceptable social conditions for the outright rejection of hegemonic social representa- tions of climate change. Most important, these comments attempt to under- mine public trust in climate science, while at the same time upholding trust in an ideal (albeit crude) image of science that, by contrast, is honest, apoliti- cal, and “unpolluted” by money. Discussion This article examines the discursive aspects of social and political contesta- tion of climate change in a small sample of reader comments on tabloid articles published in the aftermath of climategate. This context-specific study Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 20 Science Communication XX(X) is not intended to be empirically generalizable or representative of public attitudes concerning climate change. Rather, the aim is to identify and exam- ine, using critical discourse analysis, the rhetorical strategies that may be employed by readers of Daily Mail articles on climate change in order to construct particular versions (i.e., social representations) of climate change, to contest alternative representations, and to convince others of the validity of one’s constructed version of climate change. Moving beyond the analysis of political rhetoric, media reporting, and other forms of planned speech (Boykoff, 2011; Weingart, Engels, & Pansegrau, 2000), this article demon- strates the discursive strategies that laypeople can draw on in the aftermath of climategate (van Dijk, 1993). Moreover, the results provide preliminary insight into how social representations of science, more generally, are devel- oping in a context of heightened suspicion of climate science, in particular. The findings reinforce Carvalho’s (2007) observation that “[s]cientific knowledge is also utilized by a number of other social actors, including busi- ness and activists, to justify particular programs” (p. 224). Accordingly, com- mentators can employ a range of rhetorical strategies for challenging and rejecting hegemonic social representations of climate change in particular and science in general. The analysis suggests that individuals seem to draw on three overarching strategies for contesting these representations: (1) the denigration of climate science and climate scientists, (2) the delegitimization of pro–climate change individuals by disassociating them from the domain of science, and (3) the construction of a deceptive, financially driven agenda of climate science. Such strategies have always been available, but the climat- egate scandal provided material that could be used to create legitimacy for the use of such strategies. An important subdiscourse intersecting with these major strategies and linking them together was the rhetorical association of (a) science and money and (b) science and politics. Although the link between science and money and science and politics, especially in terms of financial and/or political “scams,” had already been pervasive in earlier debates surrounding climate science, even at the height of what one may call climate consensus in about 2007 (Nerlich & Koteyko, 2009), our analysis suggests that climategate is deployed by commentators as “evidence” for the assertion that climate sci- ence is indeed a moneymaking scam. Climategate is a rhetorical resource for constructing one’s own assertions as “factual,” which in turn enables one to resist hegemonic representations of climate science and (anthropogenic) cli- mate change. Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 Jaspal et al. 21 Critical Moment in Science and Science Communication This article shows how individuals may respond rhetorically to hegemonic and polemic representations of climate change. Hegemonic representations of climate change (as occurring and man-made) can be difficult to reject entirely or reconstrue. This may be attributed to the long-standing social value of respect for science and scientists (Irwin, 1995). However, a hege- monic representation can be challenged rhetorically by denigrating its dis- seminating source, namely, climate scientists themselves (Jaspal & Cinnirella, 2010). For instance, the category “scientist” may be anchored to that of “politician,” and climate science may be objectified in terms of (illegitimate) financial gain, that is, a “scam” (Moscovici, 1988). This enables readers to construct a competing polemic representation of climate scientists as untrust- worthy and/or unscientific. Not all commentators consensually denigrated the field of science. Some commentators may well acknowledge the positive values of science, such as its celebrated apoliticality, fairness, and objectivity but simultaneously engage in the rhetorical strategy of distancing pro–climate change individu- als from the positively evaluated domain of science. The primary difference between this strategy and that of denigrating science is that here science itself is not problematized. Rather, pro–climate change individuals are delegiti- mized by virtue of their “distance” from the (constructed) version of science (see Bar-Tal, 1990). They are disenfranchized from the domain of “scientific issues” (e.g., climate change), which in turn undermines the social represen- tations that they disseminate. For instance, by constructing climate change as a “creation” of Al Gore, whose nonscientific background is emphasized in the strongest terms, the phenomenon of climate change is attributed almost entirely to a single nonscientific figure. Indeed, the discursive prominence of Al Gore in blog discussions and media representations (Höijer, 2010; Nerlich & Koteyko, 2009) has led to widespread personalization (itself a subprocess of objectification) of climate change. The science, which underlies cam- paigns calling for action against climate change, is obscured by the objectifi- cation of climate change in this way. The delegitimization of the personifying symbol (i.e., Al Gore but also Dr. Pachauri) undermines the hegemonic rep- resentation itself. This is consistent with Carvalho’s (2007) observation that recent media reporting of climate change exhibits a tendency to “de-authorize the agents and institutions that call for citizen and political mobilization to address climate change” (p. 238). Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 22 Science Communication XX(X) Climategate as a Rhetorical Resource While Carvalho’s (2007) work focuses largely on the media’s use of uncer- tainty in order to delegitimize climate science, we show how climategate has rhetorically empowered laypeople to deny climate change in its entirety and to reject hegemonic representations of climate change (which are associated with heightened degrees of certainty about the causes and consequences of climate change). The analysis demonstrates that climate scientists may be depicted as the malevolent, dictatorial, and antagonistic “Other,” while the in-groups (i.e., climate skeptics and the general public) are positioned within the category of victimhood (Davies & Harré, 1990). This form of positioning creates and nur- tures in-group and out-group social identities on the basis of accepting and rejecting hegemonic representations of climate change (Breakwell, 1993). By invoking climategate, commentators may construct (a) their polemic representation that climate change simply does not exist as “factual” and (b) pro–climate change individuals as naive “believers.” This is achieved by anchoring the acceptance of climate science to religious conviction, which has been observed as one means of delegitimizing the claims of climate sci- entists (Nerlich, 2010). Linking these two observations, commentators may also generalize the “malevolence” of climate scientists to members of the general public who accept hegemonic representations of climate change. In unison, these rhetorical strategies essentially stigmatize acceptance of these hegemonic representations of climate change and undermine support for them (McCright, 2007). The article provides insight into a discursive “struggle” around (climate) science. Carvalho’s (2007) work alludes to this discursive struggle in the press, particularly in relation to the (mis-)use of scientific uncertainty. This article shows how, post-climategate, a broader range of rhetorical resources can be popularly deployed in order to contest science and scientific assertions specifically in the discourse of lay readers. Notions of science and scientific knowledge are deployed rhetorically in order to construct particular represen- tations of climate change, to contest and resist hegemonic representations, and to convince others of the validity of polemic representations. Social Representations in Text The article makes a theoretical contribution to a growing tradition of research into the use and development of social representations in text (e.g., Höijer, 2010; Jaspal & Nerlich, 2012). A hegemonic social representation can be undermined by challenging its peripheral elements, whose primary function is to support the “core” of the representation (Abric, 2001). The peripheral Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 Jaspal et al. 23 elements may be weakened by strategically invoking a competing polemic social representation (Ben-Asher, 2003). The hegemonic representation is contested due to the consequential disruption caused to the relationship between the “core” of the representation and its relevant peripheral elements. More specifically, the peripheral element is no longer able to provide support or “evidence” for the “core” due to its active contestation, which results in a consequential weakening of the hegemonic social representation. This article echoes the observation made in other contexts that in circum- stances of intergroup conflict, traditionally less “powerful” stakeholders will attempt to “upgrade” their polemic social representations to a hegemonic level (Jaspal & Yampolsky, 2011), partly because this can serve the in- group’s goals and ambitions (Breakwell, 1993). Through the use of critical discourse analysis (van Dijk, 1993), we have been able to show that com- mentators may attenuate power differentials between scientist and layperson, implicitly encouraging readers to take a favorable stance on their polemic representations that challenge anthropogenic climate change and/or climate science. The attenuation of power differentials can perform a “hegemoniz- ing” function vis-à-vis the polemic representation, since it constructs the less powerful group as knowledgeable and hence fully capable of disseminating information regarding climate change. This article argues that the notion of science and the process of science com- munication face a critical moment, since they may be problematized and dele- gitimized by individuals who seek to contest hegemonic representations of climate change. It has been shown that climate skeptics and deniers do not sim- ply delegitimize climate science without “evidence.” Rather, they make strate- gic use of contextual factors and emerging representations, such as climategate, in order to substantiate and “hegemonize” their polemic representations. This study contributes to an emerging body of work that highlights the importance of considering user-generated content. Future research should consider other forms of user-generated content, such as comments on social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), which would allow analysts to examine the use and contestation of social representations within particular social groups (e.g., environmental and other social movements) and in other settings. Further systematic research in this domain could enable analysts to develop a typology of language and rhetoric employed in order to construct and contest social representations of climate change and to con- vince others of their validity. Research into science communication should continue to examine the influence and impact of the volatile social context in which science is embedded, in order to optimize science communication and to engage with the socioenvironmental problem of climate change. Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012 24 Science Communication XX(X) Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the Economic and Social Research Council for sup- porting project RES-360-25-0068. This article has benefited greatly from insightful and constructive feedback from Dr. Cynthia-Lou Coleman, Dr. Susanna Priest, and the three anonymous reviewers. Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council project RES-360-25-0068. Notes 1. The WordSmith tools software calculates the frequency of all words in a given corpus and then arranges them in a list, with the most frequent words displayed at the top. 2. Linguists divide the vocabulary of English into two categories: function or gram- matical words (e.g., prepositions and pronouns) and content words (e.g., verbs, nouns, adjectives). 3. We reproduce all reader comments verbatim, without correcting lexical or gram- matical errors. Ellipses indicate where material has been excised. 4. “Ryanair Boss Michael O’Leary Says Global Warming Doesn’t Exist,” Daily Mail, September 10, 2010. 5. “Ryanair Boss Michael O’Leary Says Global Warming Doesn’t Exist,” Daily Mail, September 10, 2010. 6. “Head of ‘Climategate’ Research Unit Admits Sending ‘Pretty Awful Emails’ to Hide Data,” Daily Mail, March 2, 2010. 7. “Climategate U-Turn as Scientist at Centre of Row Admits: ‘There has been no global warming since 1995,’” Daily Mail, February 14, 2010. 8. “Prince Charles Criticises ‘Appalling Treatment’ of Climategate Scientists,” Daily Mail, December 4, 2010. 9. “Police Question Global Warming ‘Sceptic’ Scientist Over ‘Climategate’ Email Leak,” Daily Mail, February 5, 2010. 10. “Climategate Team Were ‘Guilty of Sloppiness—NOT cheating,” Daily Mail, April 14, 2010. 11. “Scientists Broke the Law by Hiding Climate Change Data: But Legal Loophole Means They Won’t Be Prosecuted,” Daily Mail, January 28, 2010. 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Brigitte Nerlich is Professor of Science, Language and Society at the University of Nottingham. She has a DrPhil in French linguistics and has been awarded a DLitt for her work on the social and political aspects of metaphor. Information about her work can be found at http://nottingham.academia.edu/BrigitteNerlich Nelya Koteyko is Lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Leicester. Her research lies at the intersection of media studies, corpus linguistics, and social studies of science and technology. Downloaded from scx.sagepub.com at University of Nottingham on September 30, 2012