Global climate change has been one of the most prominent transnational risks for the last 15 years. For most citizens the media coverage is the main source to get information about this science-based risk issue. In order to gain better understanding of the communicative and cognitive processes of media
reception and interpretation, we conducted a quasi-experimental study. The results confirm studies which claim, that the impact of media coverage on the audience depend on culture-specific interpretative processes of the recipients.