Global warming—global responsibility? Media frames of collective action and scientific certainty

Abstract

The increasing interconnectedness of the world that characterizes the process of globalization compels us to interlink local, national, and transnational phenomena, such as environmental risks, in both journalistic and academic discourse. Among environmental risks of global scope climate change is probably the one receiving the most attention at present, not least in the media. Globalization notwithstanding, national media are still dominated by a national logic in the presentation of news, and tensions arise between this media logic and the transnational character of environmental risks that call for a collective responsibility transcending the borders of the nation-states. This article presents results from studies of the construction of global climate change in three Swedish newspapers. It discusses the media's attribution of responsibility for collective action along an axis ranging from local to national to transnational, and highlights the media's reluctance to display any kind of scientific uncertainty that would undermine the demand for collective action. The results underline the media's responsiveness to the political setting in which they operate and the growing relevance of the transnational political realm of Europe for the construction of news frames on global climate change in European national media.

Framings and coverage of climate change in Swedish specialized farming magazines

“…The economic burden frame found in farming magazines is less common in mainstream media (Nisbet and Scheufele 2009;Olausson 2009). It frames climate change as individual economic losses stemming from national climate policies.…”

“…While the idea of scientific uncertainty prevails in US news reporting on climate change (Freudenburg and Muselli 2010), media in several European countries, e.g. Sweden, France (Brossard et al 2004), and Germany (Weingart et al 2000), are reluctant to expose scientific uncertainty (Olausson 2009). In UK newspapers, narratives differ across newspapers and time; also regarding scientific uncertainty (Ambler 2007;Boykoff 2007), thus making the scientific uncertainty frame more problematic .…”

“…Analyses of how specialized farming magazines frame and cover climate change could give insights into how climate science and policy are communicated to a group of actors pointed out as central for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Framings are here seen as meaning-providing organizing ideas or storylines (Gamson and Modigliani 1987;Olausson 2009). While "quality" newspapers have been frequently studied, few have studied media representations of climate change in special-interest magazines.…”

“…The Swedish government is promoting liberalization of trade in agricultural products, and has modified subsidies and taxes to strengthen the incentive for climate change mitigation (Swedish Government Bill 2009;SEPA 2012). The Swedish news media and tabloids have paid considerable attention to climate change (Westander et al 2008), framing it as a social problem and stressing the need for collective action (Olausson 2009). Swedish news stories tend to assume that "human-induced global warming is a direct cause of climate change, bringing with it dramatic consequences already at hand" (Olausson 2009:429 …”

How Grammatical Choice Shapes Media Representations of Climate (Un)certainty

“…In Europe, UK press have shifted focus toward potential solutions for limiting carbon emissions (Nerlich, Forsyth, & Clarke, 2012), while German press have created an impending sense of catastrophe by translating scientific hypotheses into facts (Weingart, Engels, & Pansegrau, 2000). Swedish media similarly underplay uncertainty as part of a conscious or unconscious effort to maintain demand for collective climate action (Olausson, 2009). These different media portrayals of climate (un)certainty are steeped in historically contingent spaces of ideology, culture, and politics, where various actors and institutions battle to shape public understanding and engagement.…”