Climate Change Communication in the Post-Normal Era: The Intersecting Roles of Independent Journalists and Fact-Checkers

This study examines the evolving landscape of climate change communication in Turkey, with a focus on the intersecting roles of independent journalists and fact-checking organizations within a politically polarized and semi-authoritarian context. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 15 practitioners, the research explores their motivations, perceived roles, and shared challenges through the lens of post-normal science communication. Findings reveal that fact-checkers have prioritized climate change due to rising misinformation, indifference of mainstream media, and international funding incentives. While fact-checkers curate and verify information through open-source methods, journalists offer field expertise and investigative skills, as well as serving as conveners of experts from scientific and civil society. Both see themselves as civic educators and public intermediaries, but fact-checkers tend to focus on scientific accuracy and debunking, while journalists often take a more advocacy-oriented stance. The main challenges of these alliances include political polarization, limited access to reliable public data, and funding precarity. The study contributes to the literature by documenting how climate communication in the Global South is shaped by unique socio-political pressures, expanding our understanding beyond Western-centric narratives. It calls for more inclusive, localized, and politically aware models of science communication to enhance resilience against misinformation and support informed climate action.