Image Themes and Frames in US Print News Stories about Climate Change

Abstract

Research on frames in climate change news coverage has advanced substantially over the past decade, but the emerging understanding of the framing role of visual imagery that often accompanies news texts remains fragmented. We report on a set of image frames identified through content analysis of 350 images associated with 200 news articles from 11 US newspaper and magazine sources from 1969 through late 2009. We reliably identified and quantified the occurrence of 118 image themes. We then hierarchically clustered the themes based on their cooccurrence in images to identify an integrated framework of 42 image frames. We highlight frames associated with particular types of images (e.g., photographs, maps) or geographic regions. From among the full set of frames, we identify 15 that commonly appear in US climate change news imagery and discuss the ways in which image frames make salient (or render invisible) particular categories of people, geographic regions, aspects of science, and spheres of activity.

Public engagement with climate imagery in a changing digital landscape

“…It is important that climate change is recognized as a social issue (Pearson et al, 2016), and that communication involves the dissemination of personal stories (Clayton et al, 2014). However, the seven principles of the Climate Visuals project are novel in that they provide clear guidance for the use of climate imagery, derived from cross-national, mixed-methods research specifically conducted on climate imagery (Chapman et al, 2016), combined with a synthesis of existing research literature (Chapman et al, 2016;Leviston et al, 2014;O'Neill & Smith, 2013;O'Neill & Nicholson-Cole, 2009;Rebich-Hespanha et al, 2014). They are designed to provide robust evidence-based guidance for practitioners, and are complemented by a growing digital library of images that reflect the seven principles (i.e., an evidence-based climate change image library).…”

“…The impacts of climate change are visually prominent compared to the causes or solutions (Grittmann, ; Metag et al, ; O'Neill, ; Rebich‐Hespanha et al, ). The consequences of climate change to physical environments are depicted often, and figuratively (rather than directly) in graphs rather than photographs (Grittmann, ; Rebich‐Hespanha et al, ; Smith & Joffe, ). In contrast, climate change causes tend to be depicted using photographs of the fossil fuels industry, such as smokestacks, as well as mass transport and deforestation (Leon & Erviti, ; O'Neill, ).…”

“…Perhaps surprisingly given the complex and global nature of the issue, a rather limited set of images has come to represent climate change in the public discourse. The typical iconography includes polar bears and other animals (Doyle, 2007;Leon & Erviti, 2013;O'Neill & Nicholson-Cole, 2009;Smith & Joffe, 2009;Yusoff & Gabrys, 2011), melting ice and glaciers (Brönnimann, 2002;Doyle, 2007;Leon & Erviti, 2013;Manzo, 2010b;Smith & Leiserowitz, 2012;Smith & Joffe, 2009), extreme weather (Smith & Joffe, 2009;Rebich-Hespanha et al, 2014;Metag, Schäfer, Füchslin, Barsuhn, & Kleinen-von Königslöw, 2016;Nerlich & Jaspal, 2014;Ahchong & Dodds, 2012;Grittmann, 2014), globes (Doyle, 2007;Manzo, 2010b), and politicians (Metag et al, 2016;Smith & Joffe, 2009). Many of these image tropes have been summarized in a recent overview of the field (O'Neill, 2017).…”

“…Many of these image tropes have been summarized in a recent overview of the field (O'Neill, 2017). The impacts of climate change are visually prominent compared to the causes or solutions (Grittmann, 2014;Metag et al, 2016;O'Neill, 2013;Rebich-Hespanha et al, 2014). The consequences of climate change to physical environments are depicted often, and figuratively (rather than directly) in graphs rather than photographs (Grittmann, 2014;Rebich-Hespanha et al, 2014;Smith & Joffe, 2009).…”

Bearing Witness? Polar Bears as Icons for Climate Change Communication inNational Geographic

“…In this study, I try to show that the use of such "charismatic megafauna" is not arbitrary. Rather, the choice of the polar bear within climate change communication is based on a wider iconography of the (polar) bear in Western popular culture (Archibald, 2015) as well as on the conceptualization of polar regions as the "the 'ends of the earth,'" and therefore well suited to representing imminent disaster (Cosgrove, 2008(Cosgrove, , p. 1877 Many studies on climate change communication have looked at visuals used in newspapers and news magazines (Joffe, 2008;Rebich-Hespanha et al, 2015) or on televised news programmes (Lester & Cottle, 2009). Other studies have looked at the strategies of NGOs (Slocum, 2004) or climate action campaigns (Manzo, 2010b).…”