Exploring the impact of eco-comic book stories on youth climate action

气候小说有一种过于灾难性或世界末日的倾向，有证据表明这可能会导致否认或焦虑。相比之下，编织气候变化解决方案的故事已被证明能激励积极的行动(巴登，2019年)。如果故事让读者感到自己有能力采取行动，情况尤其如此(De Meyer等人，2020)。然而，仍不清楚充满希望的乐观情绪如何与史诗般的戏剧性事件以及少量的崇高恐惧和悬念相平衡。漫画书和卡通动画是一种讲故事的形式，有着实现这一目标的深厚传统--通常是通过勇敢的超级英雄来帮助“拯救世界”。这些主题将通过一系列焦点小组进行探索，这些小组衡量年轻读者对一系列包含不同程度积极行动的漫画故事的反应。焦点小组将进一步分析生态喜剧如何在用现实主义描述解决方案之间取得重要平衡，而不是用更隐喻性的意义来描述它们。反应将根据他们的能力来衡量，以激励年轻读者按照故事情节中想象的解决方案采取行动。焦点小组将在南安普顿地区的学校举行，总共有40名12-18岁的儿童和青少年参加。

Climate-fiction stories have a tendency to be overly catastrophic or apocalyptic, with evidencesuggesting this can lead to denial or anxiety. In contrast, stories which weave in solutions to climatechange have been shown to motivate positive action (Baden, 2019). This is especially the case if storiesleave readers feeling empowered about how to take action themselves (De Meyer et al, 2020). However,it is still unclear how hopeful optimism can be balanced with epic drama, and a small dose of sublimefear and suspense. Comic books and cartoon animations are one form of storytelling with strong traditionof achieving this - often through courageous superheroes that help to 'save the world'. These themes willbe explored through a series of focus groups that measure how young readers react to a range of comicstories that contain varying degrees of positive action. The focus groups will further analyse how ecocomicsalso have an important balance to strike between depicting solutions with realism, versusdepicting them in a more metaphorical sense. Responses will be measured in terms of their capacity tomotivate young readers to act on the solutions imagined within the storyline. The focus groups will takeplace with schools in the Southampton area, involving a total of 40 children and teenagers aged 12-18.