Climate change in Peruvian newspapers: The role of foreign voices in a context of vulnerability

Abstract

Media coverage of climate change has been an area of continued research during the last years, mostly with a focus on developed countries. This study attempts to contribute to this body of work by analyzing the coverage in a developing country. The study presents a content analysis of newspaper coverage of climate change in Peru through the study of frames, geographical focus, and climate change strategies (mitigation/adaptation). Additionally, the role of foreign voices is assessed by comparing the coverage by Peruvian reporters with the coverage by wire services, and by determining the types of sources present in the articles. Results show a prevalence of an effects frame, followed by a politics frame. Also, the study found a significant amount of stories originating from wire services. In general, coverage prioritizes mitigation strategies and policies while providing limited attention to adaptation, which can be insufficient for a highly vulnerable country.

Media coverage of climate change in spanish-speaking online media

“…Almost a half of the sample of the news items studied came from international news wire services (rq4), coinciding with the results from the research by Takahashi and Meisner (2013), which examines the role of news agencies in media treatment of cc in Peru. This eliminates the capacity of online media to consult local actors.…”

“…The only Latin American country analyzed in their study was Honduras. In addition, studies have been undertaken that focused on the region (Fundación Konrad Adenauer, 2008) and on specific countries such as Peru (Takahashi and Meisner, 2013), Argentina (Mercado, 2012b), Mexico (Gordon et al, 2010) or Chile (Dotson et al, 2012). In Mexico, the research analyzed content came from Reforma newspaper, the same media outlet chosen by the previously mentioned Global Media Map on Climate Change Project (Schmidt et al, 2013).…”

El cambio de paradigma en la cobertura informativa de la gestión de riesgo de desastres

“…La literatura sobre el tema abarca diferentes perspectivas: la cobertura del cambio climático (Girardi, Moraes & Loose, 2012;Takahashi & Meisner, 2013), análisis de contenido sobre la temática ambiental en los medios (Yescas Laguna,1999;Fioravanti, 2007), el periodismo ambiental (Carabaza, 2004;Boykoff, 2011) y la cobertura de desastres en diferentes partes del mundo (Houston, Pfefferbaum & Rosenholtz, 2012;Crow et al, 2016;Thomas et al, 2016). Sin embargo, hasta el momento pocos estudios se han ocupado del tema de la GRD aplicada a la cobertura informativa (Obregón, Arroyave & Barrios, 2010).…”

A cobertura de ciência em telejornais do Brasil e da Colômbia: um estudo comparativo das construções midiáticas

“…Alguns trabalhos abordam a questão de forma comparativa entre países (Lehmkuhl et al, 2012;Verhoeven, 2010;León, 2008;Göpfert, 1996). Na América Latina, no entanto, são menos frequentes os estudos que se debruçam sobre a ciência e tecnologia nos meios de comunicação (Arboleda, Hermelin, Pérez-Bustos, 2011;Medeiros, Ramalho, Massarani, 2010;Takahashi, Meisner, 2013;Polino, Fazio, Chiappe, 2006). Menos frequentes ainda são aqueles que tratam da questão pela perspectiva comparativa entre países, como Almeida et al (2011), Massarani e Buys (2008) e Massarani et al (2005).…”