Steering Great Barrier Reef climate science narratives through the mediasphere in a time of misinformation

The threat of climate change to the health of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is undisputed. However, news reporting about the GBR in recent years has sometimes failed to accurately convey the risks to the GBR of a heating climate, fuelling discourses of climate change denial on social media. This paper reports one such case in which a media release by an Australian government research agency about the state of coral cover growth on the GBR led to inaccurate news reporting, and a spike in online climate science denial in the days following its release. The study traces media coverage and social media commentary following the report’s release, demonstrating how it fed into climate science denial online. We then provide some recommendations for a broad range of communicators charged with translating, reporting, disseminating and regulating science information to ensure such information better serves public understanding, instead of climate science denial.