Disaster, uncertainty, opportunity or risk? Key messages from the television coverage of the IPCC’s 2013/2014 reports
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.6.4179Keywords:
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.
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Author Biography
James Painter, Reuters Institute, Oxford University (UK).
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