Do You Believe Them? Perceived Trustworthiness of the Narrator in Evaluating the Effectiveness of Climate Change Narratives

Trustworthiness of the narrator is a recognised object of study in narratology, yet underrepresented in the studies of strategic narratives, which lie at the intersection of international relations and political communication. The conceptual framework of strategic narratives underlines the importance of studying not only formation and projection phases of strategic narratives but also their perception, acknowledging that it is the audiences, which determine the effects of the narratives. However, the main focus of scholars has been on the perception of contents of strategic narratives, and only minor attention has been devoted to the perception about the narrator, in particular, the fact that the narrator is worthy to trust and reliable. This study aims to fill in the research gap by testing the perceived trustworthiness of the narrator as an element providing impact on the persuasive power of strategic narrative. Exploring qualitative data on contemporary climate change strategic narrative in Latvia, the author argues that the persuasive power of the strategic narrative cannot be fully accounted for by looking at the narrative structure, its internal coherence and external convergence. Perceived trustworthiness of the narrator is an essential complementing factor in measuring the persuasive power of the strategic narrative, especially in audiences with low initial trust to the particular narrator.