Disaster, uncertainty, opportunity or risk? Key messages from the television coverage of the IPCC’s 2013/2014 reports

Authors

  • James Painter Reuters Institute, Oxford University (UK).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.6.4179

Keywords:

climate change, media coverage, IPCC reports, Europe

Abstract

This article examines the television coverage of the three 2013 and 2014 reports by the Working Groups of the IPCC in five European countries: Germany, Norway, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. The presence, salience and dominance of four frames (disaster, uncertainty, explicit risk and opportunity) were examined in each of the bulletins monitored. The «disaster» frame was the strongest of all the frames, measured by all three metrics. «Opportunity» was the next most present, followed by «uncertainty». Although the IPCC put considerable emphasis on a risk management approach to tackling climate change in its communication of the WG2 report, the «explicit risk» frame was hardly present. The UK stood out for including some coverage of sceptical viewpoints.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

James Painter, Reuters Institute, Oxford University (UK).

Director of the Journalism Fellowship Programme at the Reuters Institute at Oxford University (United Kingdom). He worked for the BBC World Service for 15 years in several capacities. He has written several books and journal articles on climate change and the media, including like Climate Change in the Media: Reporting Risk and Uncertainty (IB Tauris & RISJ, 2013).  

References

Adler, C. E., & Hadorn, G. H. (2014). The IPCC and treatment of uncertainties: topics and sources of dissensus. WIREs Climate Change, 5, 663–676. doi: 10.1002/wcc.297

Anderson, A. (2014). Media, environment and the network society. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Antilla, L. (2005). Climate of scepticism: US newspaper coverage of the science of climate change. Global Environmental Change, 15, 338–352. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2005.08.003

Brossard, D., Shanahan J., & McComas, K. (2004). Are issue-cycles culturally constructed? A comparison of French and American coverage of global climate change. Mass Communication and Society, 7, 359–377. doi: 10.1207/s15327825mcs0703_6

Corbett, J., & Durfee, J. (2004). Testing public (un)certainty of science: Media representations of global warming. Science Communication, 26, 129–151. doi: 10.1177/1075547004270234

Cottle, S. (1993). Mediating the environment: Modalities of TV news. In A. Hansen (Ed.), The mass media and environmental issues. Leicester: Leicester University Press.

Dirikx, A., & Gelders, D. (2009). Global warming through the same lens: An explorative framing study in Dutch and French newspapers. In T. Boyce, & J. Lewis (Eds.). Climate change and the media. New York: Peter Lang.

Doulton, H., & Brown, K. (2009). Ten years to prevent catastrophe? Discourses of climate change and international development in the UK press. Global Environmental Change, 19, 191–202. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.10.004

Doyle, A. (2013, September 18). Amid “uncertainty”, scientists blame mankind for global warming. Reuters.

Engels, A., Hüther, O., Schäfer, M., & Held, H. (2013). Public climate-change scepticism, energy preferences and political participation. Global Enviromental Change, 23(5), 1018–1027. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.05.008

Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51–58. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01304.x

IPCC. (2014). Intergovernmental panel on climate change: Fifth assessment report (AR5). Geneva: IPCC.

Kundzewicz, Z. W., & Matczak, P. (2012). Climate change regional review: Poland. WIREs Climate Change, 3: 297–311. doi: 10.1002/wcc.175

León, B., & Erviti, M. C. (2015). Science in pictures: Visual representation of climate change in Spain’s television news. Public Understanding of Science, 24(2), 183–199. doi: 10.1177/0963662513500196

Medienorge. (2014). Main news sources. Bergen: Medienorge. Retrieved from http://medienorge.uib.no/statistikk/aspekt/tilgang-og-bruk/374

Newman, N., & Levy, D. A. L. (2014). Reuters Institute digital news report 2014. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ).

Painter, J. (2011). Poles apart: The international reporting of climate scepticism. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ).

Painter, J. (2013). Climate change in the media: Reporting risk and uncertainty. Oxford: IB Tauris & RISJ.

Painter, J. (2014). Disaster averted? Television coverage of the 2013/14 IPCC’s climate change reports. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ).

Painter, J., & Ashe, T. (2012). Cross-national comparison of the presence of climate scepticism in the print media in six countries, 2007–2010. Environmental Research Letters, 7(4): 1–8. doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/044005

Schäfer, M., & Schlichting, I. (2014). Media representations of climate change: A meta-analysis of the research field. Environmental Communication, 8(2): 142–160. doi: 10.1080/17524032.2014.914050

Ward, R. E. T. (2014). In the public’s mind. Nature Climate Change, 4, 170. doi: 10.1038/nclimate2152

Zehr, S. (2000). Public representations of scientific uncertainty about global climate change. Public Understanding of Science, 9, 85–103. doi: 10.1088/0963-6625/9/2/301

Downloads

Published

2016-04-15

How to Cite

Painter, J. (2016). Disaster, uncertainty, opportunity or risk? Key messages from the television coverage of the IPCC’s 2013/2014 reports. Metode Science Studies Journal, (6), 81–87. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.6.4179
Metrics
Views/Downloads
  • Abstract
    1503
  • PDF
    362

Issue

Section

Living with climate change. The challenge of a new cultural change

Metrics

Similar Articles

> >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.