Credibility for and engagement with outlets sharing climate change news: a quantitative research of young people in Sweden

Abstract: How civil society perceives climate change communication by outlets is key for sustainable development. Being predicted to get largely impacted due to climate change and having a great influence on future sustainability outcomes, young people are an important group to focus on in the field of perception and climate change communication. Therefore, this research aims to determine where young people (aged 12-16) take part in climate change news, and which of these outlets young people perceive as credible. Further, the Source Credibility Theory will be used to determine influencing factors for both outlet credibility and outlet engagement. The results show that News on TV, Documentaries, Teachers, and Daily/online newspapers are both perceived as the most credible outlets, and considered as some of the most common outlets for news about climate change. However, more research is needed for a deeper and developed understanding of the topic.