climate change concerns in the media

7/31/2019 Climate Change Concerns in the Media

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H o w a r e t h e cl im a t e ch a n g es co n c e r n s r e p r o d u c e d a n d r e p r e s e n t e d in t h e m e d i a ?Ho w have t hese r ep r esen t a t ion s in f luen ced po li ci e s , pe r son a l cho i ces an da t t it u d e s t o w a r d s th e e n v ir o n m e n t ?

By Venita Subram an ian

University of Leeds, Department of International Communications

For several years, global climate change has become a long standing debate that arguesforcefully about the unfavorable effects of human activities on the climate. Climate change, be itmultidimensional or apocalyptic, is ultimately contingent on the outlook of individuals andgroups in societies. At the face of things, climate change is all around us and we encounter thisfirst hand. However, the only reason why we know of this immense phenomenon that exists is

because we have been told of its vital presence; in other words, manifestations of climatechange (Hansen, 2009). It is not so long ago that the whole host of natural processes such asflooding, hurricanes, droughts, hot summers, etc would not automatically have triggeredreferences to global warming or climate change in the way that has now become more or lesscustomary (Hansen, 2009, p. 170). A survey carried out for the UK governments Departmentfor Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2008 found that 98 percent of the people were

conscious of the climate change crises, and of them, 89 percent had seen a mention of it ontelevision, 58 percent were aware of it through radio and 40 percent read about it over theinternet (Boyce, 2009, p. 59). Such figures compel us to explore the news media, which we relyon to tell us about the crises that we face today.

The scope of this essay is to examine the relationship between scientific claims of climate changeand the representation of the issue in media. Climate change here refers to the global warmingor greenhouse effect phenomenon which is the central point of emphasis. It further examinesthe political parameters that sway the media coverage of climate change. In order to investigatethis representation, analyzing the reasons why the problem is a target on the media settingagenda, is an added aspect to be explored. The essay also discusses the historical overview ofglobal warming and its correlation to media coverage. The key questions that have been raisedhere are, is the issue on climate change being misrepresented by the media? How does thecontention of climate change affect the role of policy makers and individual decision making?

Just like most media debates, objectivity is certainly a matter of question for climate changerepresentation as well. The greenhouse effect is not any new theory coined by my scientists.Carbon-dioxide is said to be the single most substantial man-made greenhouse gas consisting of0.03 percent of the green house gases. Although study shows that scientific evidence of thisclaim in not conclusive, media has more often than not, used scientific uncertainty as aprominent theme to construct an exclusionary boundary between the public and climatechange scientists (Zehr, 2000). Besides, policy makers impose taxes and other broad basedproposals in response to the effects of global warming (Poterba, 1993). As early as the 19thcentury, scientists started to speculate about the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere

by the burning of fossil fuels (Barbara Adam, 2003).Throughout the 1970s and 1980s; climate

scientists had been working to give public attention to the topic. The riveting fact that climatechange could be anthropogenic, in other words, be caused by human behavior was a topic thathad little or no media attention and popularity in the scientific community (Barbara Adam,2003). When scientists and climate activists started connecting the climate change research tomore popular topics such as nuclear winter1 and ozone depletion, mass media started gaining

1In the 1980s, scientists calculated that an exchange of relatively small nuclear weapons could put the world into a

decade long nuclear-winter that would put enough smoke into the atmosphere to shade the Earth from the Sun

(MacKenzie, 2007).
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/apocalyptichttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/apocalyptic


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interest in the claim of a depleting environment (Stephen H. Schneider, 2009). Science, like anyother subject, is also recreated and not simply reproduced in the news coverage (Carvalho,2007). Media voiced out claims about the potentially dangerous outcome of carbon dioxide inthe atmosphere that was caused as a result of human activities. The green house effectphenomena or more popularly as global warming was particularly indicative to a larger audience

because of its direct appeal. People could candidly relate to the unpleasant weather conditions

such as heat and humidity that had negative connotations of being unpleasant andoverpowering (Hansen, 2009).

However, the relationship between the scientific evidence and the actual coverage of climatechange in the media is still ambivalent. A study covering the United States television coveragefrom 1968 to 1996 found no direct correlation between the extreme weather conditions and theclimate change coverage. (Stephen H. Schneider, 2009). The Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change (IPCC) that was set up in 1988 was a valuable source of scientific, technical andsocio-economic information for the United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change(UNFCCC) and has a significant impact on international negotiations and development (BrianDawson, 2009, p. 224). Although the IPCC identified climate change as a global threat to theplanet, the public is still presented with unclear data by the media (Jaclyn Marisa Dispensa,

2003). The IPCC is said to consists of two thousand of the worlds leading scientists who yetremain unconvinced that climate change can be proven to be a real threat and have mechanizedtheir own public relations strategies to contradict the message from the IPCC (Barbara Adam,2003). We see this indistinctness in the print coverage of climate change where severalinconsistencies were seen with reporting. National newspapers were seen to address nationaland international ramifications of climate change whereas regional newspapers addressed it ona local level.

The disparities in media coverage, also varied among science and non-science journalists whosometimes had very little idea about the scientific evidence related to climate change (Barbara

Adam, 2003, p. 207). Once these news reports are covered by journalists and disseminated intelevision, print media and the internet, the next thing to think about is how this information

can compete in the public arena for consideration. All media that exists is highly competitivewhere editors contend with other channels of communications for a higher readership/audienceshare. Journalists compete with each other for space for their reports. For an issue such asglobal warming that is long running and complex, scientific evidence and economic conceptsdoesnt transmute the structure of the story which is the main journalistic intent (Lever-Tracy,2010). Hence, we also see the aim of media professionals and environment scientists are ofdifferent poles of the paradigm. Media professionals need to sell the story in whatever way theycan, even at the cost of oversimplifying or exaggerating claims in order to win the media space.For most of 1990s to early 2000s, this resulted in a news coverage that was evenly balancedamong expert groups. Media biases give little room for analyzing the changing politicaleconomies that could affect the debate on carbon emissions. In most cases, the confined mediaspaces results in very little in-depth understanding to the subject and classifies climate science,policies and politics in a singular bracket (Lever-Tracy, 2010). At best, the media should counterthe different aspects of coverage of climate change issues from different angles; whetheranthropogenic or a natural course of the earth. However, for this adequate mediation to takeplace, the journalists themselves must have a better understanding of the ecological andscientific outlook and the politics of climate change. Boykoff and Boykoff (2004), havemaintained that journalistic norm of balance has resulted to unfair depictions of knowledge onclimate change in the US prestige press with an added weight of those that deny anthropogenicorigins or that the problem is scientifically provable (Carvalho, 2007).


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Global climate change has now evolved into a scientific and political lighting rod, challengingus to develop new connections among science, public policy and journalism (Barbara Adam,2003, p. 202). From a mere scientific point of view, occurrence of global warming as naturaloccurrences is not enough without proper documentation and interpretation of the same.Hence, for these policies to be successful, media plays a convergent role that is used a powerfultool by scientists and policy makers. A link is suggested between conceptions of the global

warming problem as it is constructed by the mass media, and the nature of policy responses atan international level (Newell, 2000, p. 68).In order to achieve this, the media sets an agendathat determines which news should be in focus and presented to the public. However, this mediaagenda setting is noted to be direct and indirect. According to Peter John Newell, classifies thisinto a direct and indirect media agenda setting approach. Direct agenda setting relates to themedias role in politicizing an issue and generating institutional responses. On the other hand,the media also engages in indirect agenda setting that focuses on formulating the climate changedebate and legitimation of conventional understanding of the subject (Newell, 2000, pp. 68,69). Newell further adds that by understanding the political role of media helps to ascertain howsome conclusions of environmental issues acquire salience in policy. By projecting a particularissue over another the media exerts an influence in the policy making debate and reinforces theassertion that media does not follow an objective approach. Newell notes that some media are

more agenda setting than others, either because of the size of their audience or their relationwith the political class that makes decision on climate policy. We have seen climate changepoliticization as early at the 1980s. From the 1980s, the coverage in British and United Statesincreased sharply as the issue started becoming highly politicized. In the September of 1988, theformer British Prime Minister Mrs. Thatcher made her first green speech addressing theproblem of anthropogenic climate change that further escalated the media agenda. During themid 1980s, media covered the scientific discourses by environment scientists making claims thatappeared as a principal source of stories. However, after Mrs. Thatchers intervention, thescientists lost track of the debate as political elites started the shape the agenda.

A similar agenda is also seen in the United States and Germany (Anderson, 2009). Theeffectiveness of such coverage can be measured through the audience sensitiveness to issues

shown on media. For example, the public rejection of the use of CFCs2

that are found inaerosols, created negotiation space for governments to approve emission reduction sanctions bybreaking down the opposition of chemical industries which were given incentives to push theinternationalization of regulations (Newell, 2000, pp. 70, 71). Conversely, with the nonexistenceof media influence that shapes public opinion, governments are less likely to act on their owningenuity. The governments need the media to influence the public perceptions of what is rightor wrong with regard to government policies.

Hence we see that the role of media is irreplaceable in order for the public to comprehend thecomplexities of climate change. With repeated media coverage of a single issue, the mediaconverts the climate change issue into the political agenda. For example, Germanys stance onthe acid rain negotiations due to the destruction of the Black Forests was partly because of thepublic outrage that pressed for political reforms. In the elections that took place, early 1983,politicians quickly announced their shift in view in face of the unrelenting campaigns by thegreen party3. The continuing campaigns in West Germany were a significant marker in the

2choloroflurocarbons

3Green Party of Germany was a German environmentalist political party focused on protests against the use of

nuclear power, and the movement was directed especially at German labour, businesses, politicians and all of who

actively endorsed its use. Widespread opposition to the deployment of a new generation of nuclear missiles in the


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advancement of public environmental awareness in Europe (Park, 1987, p. 170). Ungar arguesthat the public and the media responses to the alarming heat and draught in the summer of1988 in the United States was the main reason for the significant shift of attitudes by policymakers and accelerated political demands (Newell, 2000). Politicians were caught off guardand lacked a thorough understanding of global warming and were forced to succumb to popularconcerns. Moreover, studies also show that once the governments address these issues, media

coverage declines as a solution is perceived to be in hand (Newell, 2000).Media coverage on climate change can have far reaching impacts on policy makers and publicperception of the topic. Concerns over climate change made more than 180 countries sign theUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 in Rio de Jeneiro

which declared that serious action must be taken against reducing the effects of green housegases on the environment. To this effect, the Kyoto Protocol was signed that legally bound greenhouse gas emission targets for industrialized countries to achieve (Stephen H. Schneider, 2009).The advocates of the Kyoto Protocol celebrated its ratification as the first major step ininternational climate policy. On the contrary, several opponents rejected the claims made in theKyoto Protocol to be highly inefficient and impractical. One of the main reasons for thisskepticism was that, the majority of the countries that were said to account for the largestemission of green house gases were the developing countries, who refused to become a part of

the Kyoto Protocol. Additionally, the United States announced its withdrawal from the KyotoProtocol in 2001 which resulted in many countries renegotiating the claims made in the protocol(Helm, 2005, p. 254). However, peaks in media coverage during this time period directly relateto the importance the Kyoto Protocol held in the media agenda towards media coverage ofclimate change. In a journal published in Sociology Compass, it was estimated that over 3500

journalists and 400 media organizations from 160 countries were covering issues on climatechange during this time. It is also noticed that news coverage significantly increases whenclimate change is promoted by the politically elite. The release of Al Gore4s film,An In con venien t Trut h, gained a steady increase in media coverage during 2006 (Anderson, 2009).Over this period, it was recorded that media coverage in Australia, New Zealand, Middle East,

Asia, South Africa was also on the rise. Ironically, media coverage on climate issues wascomparatively less in developing countries during this same period of time (Anderson, 2009).

The fluctuating nature of climate change news coverage over the last several decades isexplained in Anthony Downs Issue-Attention Cycle. According to Down, public attentionhardly ever remains focused on any one issue for a long time. Each of these problems, remains acentral focus for a short time, though still unsolved, slips out of public attention. Down says thatthe issue-attention cycle is rooted both in the nature of the domestic problems and in the waymajor communications media interact with the public (DOWNS).

ConclusionClimate change is perhaps the most exaggerated and over emphasized natural crises that ismediated today. After decades of analyzing the existence of climate change as a global threat,there are still conflicting views and ambiguity on the true nature of the problem. Concerns aboutclimate change have well been passed down and massively covered by the media in many ways.By large, scientific uncertainty has been the main center of attention and a problem to manyenvironment policy makers. Even if this uncertainty could be articulated explicitly, this problemstill poses as a hindrance to policy action and a long term impact on decision making of

West Germany sparked a nationwide peace movement that helped Greens enter the national parliament in 1983

(Conradt).4

Former Vice President Al Gore is cofounder and Chairman of Generation Investment Management, a firm that is

focused on a new approach to Sustainable Investing (Al Gore).


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individuals and groups. On the contrary, sometimes uncertainty might be useful to scientistswho can serve as an alibi of the lack of policy effectiveness (Wynne, 1996). As seen through thecourse of the essay, studies of media coverage on climate change have shown that the mediaadapts the same values and norms just like any other news reporting. Politics, environmentpolicies, geographic proximity, relevance and value are few of the important determinants in theselection of news. News is not merely produced but reconstructed, with several factors taken

into consideration. Various media presentations shown are seen to be based less on facts andmore on an ideological representation that appeals to a larger audience.

The goals associated with these representations are governed by political factors, that havedirect and indirect implications on policymakers and scientists. The media controlling politicalelites will continue to sway the public image and keep the construction of global warming

because of the political and economic connotations. Whatever the real risks of climate changemaybe, the discourses change from scientists, political actors and media. The segregation of thethree classes are deliberately arranged to achieve goals within the respective sectors. For thesake of brevity and simplification, it may be said that in the German discourse on climatechange, scientists politicized the issue, politicians reduced the scientific complexities anduncertainties to CO2 emissions reduction targets, and the media ignored the uncertainties and

transformed them into a sequence of events leading to catastrophe and requiring immediateaction (Peter Weingart, 2000). This converging relationship results in generalization of such acomplex issue that requires fresh prospects. Media only reports what they think is worthreporting and politicians only decide on options that let them make decisions. Doubts about thecertainty of scientific claims may easily throw their credibility into question (Peter Weingart,2000). We have to first acknowledge that new approaches are needed to resolve, or progress inthe debate. News coverage needs new elements to base their stories around and more journalistsshould be well versed with the scientific discourses to efficiently participate in the media debate.

B ib l iog raphyAl Gore . (n.d.). Retrieved from Al Gore: http://www.algore.com/about.html

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