Pakistani Print Media and Climate Literacy: A Study of Formal-stylistic Frame Analysis during 2018-19

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine climate and environment news articles in two widely-read newspapers in Pakistan, Jang and Dawn, and to identify how these articles are framed using formal-stylistic approaches such as episodic and thematic framing. The goal of the research was to determine whether the print media in Pakistan is contributing to climate literacy through the framing of climate and environment news stories. The study put forward two hypotheses: H1: Climate and environment-related news coverage in Pakistani print media is usually episodic rather than thematic. H2: The way news stories of climate and environment are framed in Pakistani print media, does not enhance climate literacy. The research employed qualitative frame analysis to examine, choose, evaluate, and scrutinize news frames based on episodic and thematic framing. The study investigated how print media covered news stories about climate and environment over a period of two years (2018-19), which were selected because they coincided with significant climate change events that were of great importance for media analysis. To conduct the frame analysis, the researcher evaluated a total of 1,460 newspapers that were published between January 01, 2018 and December 31, 2019. The entire population of newspapers was included in the sample, which consisted of N=694 for Dawn and N=622 for Daily Jang. The study focused on news articles that were published in different sections of each newspaper, such as the front, back, national, and international pages, and that were related to climate or environmental events, either directly or indirectly. The unit of analysis for the research was individual news articles that were published between January 01, 2018 and December 31, 2019. The study discovered that the predominant framing approach employed in both English and Urdu print media (specifically Dawn and Jang newspapers) is episodic, with 87.4% in Dawn and 98.6% in Jang. Nevertheless, Dawn's usage of the thematic framing approach constitutes 12.6% while Jang's usage is merely 1.4%. The most dominant themes coded under episodic framing approach during the selected time period were reports on adverse impacts of climate and environment disasters and political activities of ministers and other government officials with regards to climate and environmental concerns. Such news articles do not provide any context of climate change and fail to enhance climate literacy. The investigation found that both English and Urdu print media, specifically the Dawn and Jang newspapers, primarily used the episodic framing approach, which accounted for 87.4% of Dawn's coverage and 98.6% of Jang's coverage. However, Dawn also utilized thematic framing in 12.6% of its coverage, while Jang only used it in 1.4% of its coverage. The most common themes under the episodic framing approach during the selected time period were news reports about the harmful effects of climate and environmental disasters and the actions of government officials and ministers in relation to climate and environmental issues. However, these news stories lacked any context of climate change and did not contribute to enhancing climate literacy.