Climate Change Communication in Portugal

Abstract

In Portugal, global politics tend to dominate climate change communication. Policy-oriented news stories prevail, being very much influenced by international events, dynamics, and actors, especially European ones, whereas national politicians and officials tend to be given less space. Climate change is thus mainly (re)presented as a global issue, distant from local realities, in spite of the vulnerabilities that the country faces. National policy makers tend to adopt a technocratic discourse that comes across as “rational” and fairly optimistic, with little contestation by environmental groups or others. A “green economy” discourse has prevailed in the media, with investment on renewable energy being depicted as the way to both stimulating the economy and addressing climate change. Scientific knowledge tends to be represented as consensual and national scientists tend to avoid dramatization. Although public opinion surveys have shown that the population considers climate change a serious problem and skepticism regarding its anthropogenic causes is low, surveys have also revealed high levels of ignorance and self-evaluated lack of information. In spite of a traditionally weak environmental movement and lack of public engagement, the population has shown a consistent sense of collective responsibility to tackle climate change. The economic and financial crisis up until the mid-2010s considerably affected the already fragile media system and turned political and public attention to economy-related topics. News coverage of climate change, in all its complexity, has been constrained by a lack of specialized reporters and increased dependency on the pro-activity of news sources.

Climate journalism in a changing media ecosystem: Assessing the production of climate change‐related news around the world

“…A standardized survey of 85 climate journalists working for print media there found that most of them wrote for science desks (66%) but that many also wrote for political (64%), economics (41%) and “miscellaneous” (41%) desks (Peters & Heinrichs, 2005:95). A Portuguese study reports “a serious shortness of human resources and time pressure on [climate] journalists” due to “drops in print circulation, the transfer of readers to digital platforms, and the severe economic crisis,” all of which have meant that “newsrooms have gravely shrunk and are mostly composed of young temporary hires with the pressure to produce more and faster for less and less pay” (Horta & Carvalho, 2017).…”

Energy Governance in Portugal

“…Media discourse analyses suggest that the social construction of climate change in Portugal has been strongly influenced by policymakers, with the media often reproducing official discourses of administrative and economic rationality, and rarely adopting critical stances. Mitigation of climate change is regarded as solvable by state and expert-led policies and ecological modernization -that is, policies that promote technological solutions to increase the eco-efficiency of products, production processes and services (Jänicke 2009) -can be a driver of economic growth (Carvalho et al 2014;Delicado 2015b;Horta and Carvalho 2017). While the media focuses mainly on economic issues, citizens are concerned with environmental degradation and global warming and consider the investment in renewable energies an adequate response to the risks associated with climate change (Delicado 2015b: 136).…”