Anders Hansen

Anders Hansen (Cand.Phil University of Copenhagen; MA Mass Communications University of Leicester) is Associate Professor in the School of Media Communication and Sociology University of Leicester UK. He is author of Environment Media and Communication (2nd edition Routledge 2019); co-author of Media and Communication Research Methods (2nd edition Macmillan International 2019); co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication (2015); Associate Editor of the journals Environmental Communication and Frontiers in Communication: Science and Environmental Communication; founder and immediate-past chair of the IAMCR Group on Environment Science and Risk Communication; founding member and executive board member and secretary 2011-2015 of the International Environmental Communication Association (IECA). He is co-editor of Visual Environmental Communication (Routledge 2015) and co-editor of the Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication book series. He was chair of the 2017 Conference on Communication and Environment hosted at the University of Leicester.

My research is in environmental, science and health communication, focusing on communication roles in social, cultural and political change.
I have published widely on the role of the media in relation to alcohol, drugs and health, in studies funded by the Alcohol Education and Research Council, Alcohol Concern, and the Home Office. As part of the ESRC’s programme of research on the Public Understanding of Science, I directed the first major study in the UK of science in the news media. I have collaborated with colleagues at Cambridge University on research, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, on the Status of Teachers.
I published the first major publication in Britain to examine the Mass Media and Environmental Issues (Leicester University Press, 1993), and my research, publishing and professional activities have centred on ‘environmental communication’, including a recent successful application for an ESRC Collaborative Studentship award on environmental campaigning, and multiple publications, including the The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication (2nd edition 2022).

Hansen, A., & Cox, R. (Eds.). (2022). The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. 
Hansen, A. (2020). Sources, Strategic Communication, and Environmental Journalism. In D. Sachsman & J. Valenti (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Journalism (pp. 38-51). London: Routledge. 
Hansen, A. (2019). Environment, Media and Communication (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. 
Hansen, A., & Machin, D. (2019). Media and Communication Research Methods (2nd ed.). Basingstoke: Macmillan International. 
Hansen, A. (2018). Using visual images for showing environmental problems. In A. Fill & H. Penz (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Ecolinguistics (pp. 179-195). London: Routledge. 
Hansen, A. (2018). Environmental communication. In R. L. Heath & W. Johansen (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Strategic Communication. London: John Wiley & Sons. 
Hansen, A. (2018). Environment and the news media. In N. Castree, M. Hulme, & J. Proctor (Eds.), The Companion to Environmental Studies (pp. 654-659). London and New York: Routledge. 
Matthews, J., & Hansen, A. (2018). Fracturing Debate? A Review of Research on Media Coverage of “Fracking”. Frontiers in Communication, 3(41). doi:10.3389/fcomm.2018.00041
Hansen, A. (2017). Methods for Assessing Visual Images and Depictions of Climate Change. In M. Nisbet (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
Hansen, A. (2016). The changing uses of accuracy in science communication. Public Understanding of Science, 25(7), 760-774. doi:10.1177/0963662516636303
Hansen, A. (2015). Promising Directions for Environmental Communication Research. Environmental Communication, 9(3), 384-391. doi:10.1080/17524032.2015.1044047
Hansen, A. (2015). Communication, media and the social construction of the environment. In A. Hansen & R. Cox (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication (pp. 26-38). London: Routledge.
Hansen, A. (2015). Nature, environment and commercial advertising. In A. Hansen & R. Cox (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication (pp. 270-280). London: Routledge.
Hansen, A. (2015). News coverage of the environment: a longitudinal perspective. In A. Hansen & R. Cox (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication (pp. 209-220). London: Routledge.
Hansen, A., & Machin, D. (Eds.). (2015). Visual Environmental Communication. London: Routledge. 
Hansen, A. (Ed.). (2014). Media and the Environment (Vols. 1-4). London: Routledge (Critical Concepts in the Environment).
Hansen, A., & Machin, D. (2013). Researching visual environmental communication. Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, 7(2), 1-18. 
Hansen, A. (2011). Communication, media and environment: Towards reconnecting research on the production, content and social implications of environmental communication. International Communication Gazette, 73(1-2), 7-25. 
Gunter, B., Hansen, A., & Touri, M. (2010). Alcohol Advertising and Young People’s Drinking: Representation, Reception and Regulation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hansen, A. (Ed.). (2009). Mass Communication Research Methods (Vols. 1-4). London: Sage (Sage Benchmarks in Social Research Methods series). 
Hansen, A., & Machin, D. (2008). Visually branding the environment: climate change as a marketing opportunity. Discourse Studies, 10(6), 777-794.

I have supervised 18 postgraduate research students through to successful completion of their PhDs at the University of Leicester. I am interested in supervising research in environmental, science and health communication, and in media and communication roles in wider social, cultural and political change.
My current research students are working on a range of exciting topics, including: 
• News Coverage of the COVID-19 Crisis
• Online activism and digital narratives in environmental communication
• Climate change adaptation and environmental communication in Malawi
• Environmental communication and campaigning in the public sphere (ESRC Collaborative Studentship award)
• City image advertising of Chinese mega-cities
• News portals, digital news and public trust
• Citizen journalism and the doctor-patient relationship in contemporary China

I am Programme Director for the MA in Mass Communications, and currently module leader for:
• MS7400 Media Research Methods
• MS7025 Researching Media and Public Communication
• MS3003 Environmental Communication.

I contribute to a number of further modules including: MS7307 Promotional Cultures, MS7006 Global Affairs: Actors, Communication and Culture; and I supervise BA and MA dissertation students

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Since founding the IAMCR Working Group on Environmental Issues, Science and Risk Communication in 1988, and publishing in 1993 the first major publication in Britain to examine the Mass Media and Environmental Issues (Leicester University Press), my research, publishing and professional activities have focused on environmental communication. 
I am founding member of the International Environmental Communication Association (IECA) and served as its first Secretary and as executive board member 2011-2015. In 2015, a successful bid resulted in my hosting and chairing the IECA’s international biennial Conference on Communication and Environment at the University of Leicester in June 2017. The conference, which brought together leading environmental communication scholars and practitioners from around the world, focused on the challenges to environmental communication posed by rapid changes in public and political engagement. 
I served as Associate Editor of the journal Environmental Communication from its launch in 2008 to 2019, and I am currently Associate Editor of the journal Frontiers in Communication: Science and Environmental Communication