{"id":171,"date":"2015-12-04T20:10:09","date_gmt":"2015-12-05T01:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/cop21\/?page_id=171"},"modified":"2021-02-13T15:28:37","modified_gmt":"2021-02-13T20:28:37","slug":"what-role-does-the-media-play-in-climate-change-discussion","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/cop21\/blog-posts\/what-role-does-the-media-play-in-climate-change-discussion\/","title":{"rendered":"What Role Does the Media Play in Climate Change Discussion?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By\u00a0Sarah Ladouceur, Class of 2018<\/p>\n

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What\u2019s Up with the Media Coverage of Climate Change?<\/u><\/p>\n

The media is an important player in cli\u00admate change com\u00admu\u00adnic\u00ada\u00adtion \u2013 the general population does not read sci\u00adentific reports, spe\u00adcialist web\u00adsites and blogs, or the reports of the\u00a0IPCC. Although in theory, the \u2018facts\u2019 of cli\u00admate change sci\u00adence should be reported in a straight\u00adfor\u00adward way by news\u00adpa\u00adpers and tele\u00advi\u00adsion net\u00adworks, con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adable dif\u00adfer\u00adences exist between the edit\u00adorial lines taken by dif\u00adferent media organizations about the reality and ser\u00adi\u00adous\u00adness of cli\u00admate change. Perhaps unsur\u00adpris\u00adingly, there is a strong rela\u00adtion\u00adship between the polit\u00adical per\u00adspective of a media organization and its pos\u00adi\u00adtion on cli\u00admate change. The web\u00adsite of the left-leaning\u00a0UK\u00a0news\u00adpaper the Guardian, for example, is known inter\u00adna\u00adtion\u00adally as a hub of cli\u00admate change and envir\u00adon\u00admental reporting and opinion \u2013 and skeptical opin\u00adions are rarely to be found. In com\u00adpar\u00adison, right leaning media (such as the\u00a0US\u00a0Wall Street Journal) are far more likely to carry skeptical opinion and edit\u00ador\u00adials. Although it is dif\u00adfi\u00adcult to estab\u00adlish cause and effect, it seems highly likely that the pos\u00adi\u00adtion of right and left-leaning media is one of the key influ\u00adences on public per\u00adcep\u00adtions (which dis\u00adplay a sim\u00adilar split along ideo\u00adlo\u00adgical lines), and media-generated con\u00adtro\u00adversy is also often cited as a reason for skepticism about cli\u00admate change. But inter\u00adest\u00adingly, media \u2018exag\u00adger\u00ada\u00adtion\u2019 of cli\u00admate change is also one of the meas\u00adures that has been used to indicate skepticism in public atti\u00adtudes \u2013 so there is a com\u00adplex rela\u00adtion\u00adship between public per\u00adcep\u00adtions and media reporting of cli\u00admate change.<\/p>\n

It has been a busy month for climate change issues. In his first visit to the United States, Pope Francis chose to make climate change a central tenet of his trip, speaking about it\u00a0more<\/a>\u00a0than any other topic in his address on the White House lawn, emphasizing it in his United Nations\u00a0speech<\/a>, and choosing it as his single\u00a0call<\/a>\u00a0to action when speaking before Congress. China announced a new cap-and-trade emissions\u00a0reduction<\/a>\u00a0program<\/a>. All of this comes on the heels of President Obama\u2019s\u00a0trip<\/a>\u00a0several weeks ago emphasizing the impact of climate change on the Artic.\u00a0 (This post does not take into account the tragic terror attacks in Paris that took place on November 13th<\/sup>, 2015. This is because all analysis took place before the event.) \u00a0What can the world of data tell us about the current state of public interest in climate change as an issue and how the world\u2019s media is covering the topic across the planet?<\/p>\n

Who Cares?<\/u><\/p>\n

The first major question that needs to be addressed is whether the public is actually interested in climate change. Google web searches show that the countries searching most frequently on the topic tend to be those most affected by changing climatic conditions: Fiji, Philippines, Mauritius, India, South Africa, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Uganda. (Google Trends, 2015) This suggests that being affected by the phenomena increases public interest: it is not\u00a0wealthy countries idly researching a topic they hear on the news, it is affected populations trying to understand more about what they are experiencing. Looking at how search interest has changed over time, the timeline below shows that \u201cglobal warming\u201d has historically been the term of choice used by the public when searching on the topic, while \u201cclimate change\u201d has been the preferred term of academics and policymakers and thus less searched on.\u00a0 The below graph shows the trends in google searches of the terms \u201cglobal warming\u201d and \u201cclimate change\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"lad\"<\/a> (Google Trends, 2015)<\/p>\n

What about COP21?<\/u><\/p>\n

When the attention is turned to more specific climate change events the results are extremely different.\u00a0 The below graph shows the searches for the terms \u201cCOP21\u201d (blue), \u201cCOP 21\u201d (red) and \u201cParis Climate Conference\u201d (yellow).<\/p>\n

\"lad1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Google Trends, 2015)<\/p>\n

In addition to the limited search history of these terms, it is also surprising to find that the majority of the searches were done in France, the United States and Japan.\u00a0 (Google Trends, 2015)<\/p>\n

For the general public, access to news about this event is limited to what pops up on the home screen of whatever news site they choose to look at.\u00a0 On a columnist\u2019s environmental page, CNN ran a piece called \u201c100 Days to Save the World\u201d on September 11th<\/sup>, 2015 that attempted to break down the COP21 conference and explain why people should be optimistic about the outcome.\u00a0 In a classic climate change coverage strategic move, the first thing the reader sees when opening the article is a polar bear with her two cubs on melting ice. (Sutter, 2015) Other than this article, no other articles about COP21 appear in the \u2018related articles\u2019 bar, and there seem to be no other articles purely about COP21 in CNN\u2019s \u2018twoo<\/sup>\u2019 environmental section of the website.\u00a0 Instead, articles about climate change are relatively limited and very scientific in their writing.\u00a0 The most user-friendly article seemed to be a quiz about climate change as seen below.<\/p>\n

\"lad2\"<\/a>(CNN, 2015)<\/p>\n

When looking for COP21 articles on other sites, such as BBC, The New York Times and the Washington Post, the results are even more limited.\u00a0 When searching the term COP21 on all the sites the results are all articles about other things that mention COP21 because it is somehow related.\u00a0 There is nothing explaining COP21, the important players, key things to know in advance etc.\u00a0 It is clear that the necessary place to look for information about the conference are environmentally specific sites and the COP21 site itself.\u00a0 Sites such as ICE CaPs (International Collective on Environment, Culture and Politics), The Guardian and the UNFCCC website have all devoted far more resources to COP21 and attempting to make it more accessible.<\/p>\n

What Does It All Mean? <\/u><\/p>\n

What is the result of this though? The average person on the street is not going to take the time to look for a lesser known news source or even to scour their usual source in order to find more information about something that very few people are pushing as important.\u00a0 Media coverage is extremely influential in people\u2019s view of how important an issue is so without coverage COP21 is missed by the vast majority of citizens.<\/p>\n

In recent decades there has been a push to research and, subsequently, criticize media coverage of climate change.\u00a0 This stems from a belief that the media should serve more as a watchdog of the issue- reporting things as they are, without political biases.\u00a0 Recent research has concluded that mass media is a critical agent in the way that climate change issues are framed in public opinion.\u00a0 This prompts several questions: what is the role of news media (watchdog or otherwise) and how much power do they possess? Where in the process of news \u2014 which begins with competing claims-makers who seek to instigate and influence news, culminates with the story presented to the public and concludes with media audiences \u2014 does the power of media lie? And in whose interest do news media operate \u2014 is it in the public’s interest as a watchdog or for other interests altogether?<\/p>\n

Sources of Interest:<\/u><\/p>\n