ADVANCED REVIEW Public engagement with climate imagery in a changing digital landscape Susie Wang 1 | Adam Corner 2,3 | Daniel Chapman 4 | Ezra Markowitz 5 1 School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Australia 2 Climate Outreach, Oxford, UK 3 School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK 4 Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA 5 Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA Correspondence Susie Wang, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Australia. Email: susie.wang@research.uwa.edu.au Edited by Lorraine Whitmarsh, Domain Editor, and Mike Hulme, Editor-in-Chief Despite extensive exploration into the use of language in climate change commu- nication, our understanding of the use of visual images, and how they relate to public perceptions of climate change, is less developed. A limited set of images have come to represent climate change, but rapid changes in the digital landscape, in the way media and information are created, conveyed, and consumed has chan- ged the way climate change is visualized. We review the use of climate imagery in digital media (news and social media, art, video and visualizations), and synthe- size public perceptions research on factors that are important for engaging with climate imagery. We then compare how key research findings and recommenda- tions align with the practical strategies of campaigners and communicators, highlighting opportunities for greater congruence. Finally, we outline key chal- lenges and recommendations for future directions in research. The increasingly image-focused digital landscape signals that images of climate change have a piv- otal role in building public engagement, both now, and in future. A better under- standing of how these images are being used and understood by the public is crucial for communicating climate change in an engaging way. This article is categorized under: Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Perceptions of Climate Change 1 | INTRODUCTION Recent years have seen a proliferation of studies seeking to communicate climate change more effectively, most of which focus on language-based communication. But our understanding of the use of visual images in communication, and how they shape public perceptions of climate change, is less developed. Perhaps surprisingly given the complex and global nature of the issue, a rather limited set of images has come to represent climate change in the public discourse. The typical iconogra- phy includes polar bears and other animals (Doyle, 2007; Leon & Erviti, 2013; O’Neill & Nicholson-Cole, 2009; Smith & Joffe, 2009; Yusoff & Gabrys, 2011), melting ice and glaciers (Brönnimann, 2002; Doyle, 2007; Leon & Erviti, 2013; Manzo, 2010b; Smith & Leiserowitz, 2012; Smith & Joffe, 2009), extreme weather (Smith & Joffe, 2009; Rebich-Hespanha et al., 2014; Metag, Schäfer, Füchslin, Barsuhn, & Kleinen-von Königslöw, 2016; Nerlich & Jaspal, 2014; Ahchong & Dodds, 2012; Grittmann, 2014), globes (Doyle, 2007; Manzo, 2010b), and politicians (Metag et al., 2016; Smith & Joffe, 2009). Many of these image tropes have been summarized in a recent overview of the field (O’Neill, 2017). The impacts of climate change are visually prominent compared to the causes or solutions (Grittmann, 2014; Metag et al., 2016; O’Neill, 2013; Rebich-Hespanha et al., 2014). The consequences of climate change to physical environments are depicted often, and figuratively (rather than directly) in graphs rather than photographs (Grittmann, 2014; Rebich- Hespanha et al., 2014; Smith & Joffe, 2009). In contrast, climate change causes tend to be depicted using photographs of the fossil fuels industry, such as smokestacks, as well as mass transport and deforestation (Leon & Erviti, 2013; O’Neill, 2013). Received: 29 August 2017 Revised: 24 November 2017 Accepted: 28 November 2017 DOI: 10.1002/wcc.509 WIREs Clim Change. 2018;e509. wires.wiley.com/climatechange © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1 of 18 https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.509