Purpose: This conceptual paper aims to explore the current state of sustainability communication research, focusing on the challenges of communicating inconvenient truths in an era of scientific mistrust. Therefore, this study aims to (1) examine the existing research landscape in sustainability communication, (2) identify unresolved problems and challenges, and (3) propose strategies for counteract misinformation through targeted communication.Design/methodology/approach: For this, the authors conducted a critical literature review and analyzed the resulting sample (n = 473 journal articles) by means of qualitative content analysis to (1) evaluate existing communication approaches dealing with the communication of sustainability's inconvenient truth, (2) identify stakeholder groups involved in sustainability communication, (3) discuss limitations of current communication approaches and (4) present recommendations on (more) effective communication strategies to address the unresolved issues in sustainability communication.Findings: The analysis reveals that when it comes to sustainability communication and its unresolved problems, literature refers to four key stakeholder groups: (1) science deniers; (2) adaptation skeptics; (3) whitewashers and (4) world saviors. Furthermore, the analysis provides valuable insights into the complex dynamics involved in communicating sustainability, emphasizes the need for tailored approaches to engage and address the concerns of each stakeholder group, and exposes limitations in current communication methods and approaches. Accordingly, the analysis highlights the necessity of developing new theories, models and methods specific to sustainability communication to tackle its unique challenges effectively.Research limitations/implications: Like our society, communication sciences need a fundamental transformation to meet sustainability communication's new challenges induced by the necessary shift toward sustainable development.Originality/value: This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of sustainability communication in research, specifically addressing the challenges of effectively communicating unpleasant news in the context of scientific mistrust. It fills a gap in existing literature by examining the progress made in addressing these issues and identifying the emerging challenges that need to be addressed.

Purpose: This research aims to analyze to what extent sustainability and its related core aspects are integrated in media and communication's curricula of higher education institutions in Europe. Design/methodology/approach: A total of n = 1068 bachelor and master’s degree programs, as well as their related curricula/program specifications, from 28 European countries were analyzed by means of content analysis. Findings: Results show that the level of curricular integration of sustainability aspects in the field of media and communication is low (14%) to very low (6%) on module level. In most cases, sustainability remains an abstract guiding principle that is not translated into a dedicated course offer. This can indicate the difficulty of operationalizing such a concept as sustainability, which is experienced by not only higher education institutions but also policy and society as a whole. In addition, the results leave space for a reflection on the social and educational responsibility of higher education institutions. Research limitations/implications: The authors are aware that not all teaching (content) is depicted in curricula. Especially where teaching is research-based, The authors assume that sustainability (communication) is more present as the curricula' analysis can represent it. In addition, the fact of solely investigating English language curricula can be seen as a further limitation. Originality/value: This research is one of the few attempts to verify the actual integration level of sustainability aspects in the curricula of a specific sustainability-relevant discipline, which is neither conducted as a case study nor as a single-country analysis.

Every day, media managers face different challenges in a constantly changing global economic, cultural and technological setting (Hollifield, Leblanc Wicks, Sylvie, & Lowrey, 2016, p. 110, 177; Albarran, 2013; Shaver & Shaver, 2008; Hollifield, 2001). Between all these challenges, questions on what a media company is today, how it might be defined and the kinds of features characterizing it often remain unanswered. These questions are rarely addressed by authors and scholars working in both business economics, journalism, media, and communication science, maybe because there is the existing assumption of a self-evident and generally accepted definition of the term "media company" (as argued by Sjurts, 2004, p. 390) which actually does not exist. The aim of this paper is therefore to offer an overview of the existing theoretical approaches used to define "media companies," to identify possible shortcomings of each definitional approach and, deduced from there, to suggest a theoretically sound and empirically applicable approach, which takes into account the challenges and needs of the actual media landscape.

As producers of economic and cultural goods, media companies are subject to a double responsibility: regarding how they operate and how they represent reality in their products. Thus, their social responsibility is primarily the “brain print” they leave on their audience. Communication of, about, and for sustainability through mass media is therefore essential to create a shared understanding of societal values on sustainability, creating public engagement, and contributing to sustainable development. Accordingly, the present study aims at understanding how media (companies) take their responsibility as key communicators in the public sphere and analyze how they communicate and thus construct the sustainability discourse through their products. For this, sustainability-related content produced and broadcasted by the two largest commercial media companies in Germany (RTL and ProSiebenSat1; n = 50 online articles and n = 89 videos, 601 min in total) was analyzed by qualitative content analysis and rhetoric text analysis to understand what and how media communicate sustainability. Results show that most media sustainability-related content addresses food issues, followed by issues regarding resources and the environment, thus contributing to the achievement of some of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Namely: SDG#2 (zero hunger), #6 (clean water and sanitation), #13 (climate action), #14 (life below water), and #15 (life on land). These issues are primarily communicated logically, appealing to the audience’s reason (logos, 76%), while the ethical appeal ethos (22%) and the emotional pathos (2%) scarcely occur. The analysis also leaves room for discussion regarding the responsibility of media companies in their role as communicators of, about, and for sustainability; about how they fulfill their responsibility in accordance with the SDG Media Compact, and about the opportunities and risks of applying different rhetorical appeals.

In this paper, we analyze public discourses in 2018 about water-scarce Cape Town, SA. We investigated the discursive implications of apocalyptic rhetoric such as “Day Zero” by analyzing local and international news media talk (n = 111 newspaper articles) surrounding the Cape Town water crisis during pre-, height of, and post-crisis moments, complemented by 12 narrative problem-centered interviews in the height of the water crisis. The analysis led to a focus on the relationship between environmental and communicative developments with a high local impact, and mainly on examples of local engagement, social movements, or resistance as response to changing environmental scenarios and the evaluation of the role of (news) media in raising community concern and commitment. The findings show that the communication around the (twice-postponed) “Day Zero” in Cape Town is a very fruitful example of the digital disrupted, post-truth communication that happens with environmental issues today.