The uncertainties of climate change in Spanish daily newspapers: content analysis of press coverage from 2000 to 2010

Abstract

This paper explores media coverage of climate science through a selection of Spanish newspapers (El País, El Mundo, ABC, Expansión and Levante). We selected a stratified random sample of 363 items to be studied for eleven years (2000-2010). Content analysis allowed us to find out media attention paid to climate science, prevalence of informative tables, evaluation and characterization of news, as well as the presence of questioning or rejection of climate change. According to main results, press coverage of climate science in Spain was mainly focused on the consequences rather than on the causes or natural sources, and media attention paid to it was limited. Overlapping with social and macroeconomic problems in the country also contributed to communication of climate science as a controversial and uncertain science through informative framings.

Online video on climate change: a comparison between television and web formats

“…Various studies have analysed the communication of risks associated with climate change [Smith, 2005;Painter, 2013], the public's perception of this problem [Lorenzoni and Pidgeon, 2006;Sterman, 2008;Morton et al, 2011] and the current controversy surrounding this environmental risk [León and Erviti, 2011;Lopera and Moreno, 2015]. The coverage of climate change has been addressed from the perspectives of scientists, journalists and the public [De Lara, 2014], and its framing on television news programmes tends to focus on negative issues and environmental threats [Hart and Feldman, 2014].…”

The green battle in the media: A framing analysis of environmental press coverage

“…The one environmental area that has enjoyed the most attention in this sense is climate change (see, for instance, Carvalho, 2008;Maibach, Nisbet, Baldwin, Akerlof & Diao, 2010;Nisbet, 2009Nisbet, , 2010or Pan, Opgenhaffe & Van Gorp, 2019). In Spain, despite the fact that most framing studies in the field of communication have been related to social or political communication matters (see, for instance, Cheng, Igartua, Palacions, Acosta & Palito, 2010;or Valera Ordaz & López García, 2014), we can also find some works focusing on environmental issues such as environmental disasters (Vicente-Mariño, 2010), climate change (Lopera & Moreno, 2014), natural spaces (Mateu & Domínguez, 2017) or risk communication (Castelló, 2010).…”

‘Offline’ vs ‘online’ media: Claim-makers, content, and audiences of climate change information

“…While the framing tendencies (from the media perspective) and the exposure (from the public perspective) to traditional news media have been widely explored by reporting the main characteristics and effects produced by this kind of communication, the study of both effects and dynamics of new media reporting media is still under definition. The literature focusing on traditional media communication highlighted, for example, that those communication based on consequences of climate change, but simultaneously providing solutions, seem to be more appealing for public engagement (Gunster, 2011;Hidalgo et al, 2014;Lopera & Moreno, 2014;Somerville & Hassol, 2011). Even uncertainty was found to be effective if associated with 'positive frames' (lack of losses).…”

“…However, beyond the advantages, some disadvantages might be represented by the possibility that the increasing number of voices involved in the debate might (also 'intentionally') generate increasing confusion and uncertainty. (Asplund et al, 2013;Gunster, 2011;Hidalgo et al, 2014;Lopera & Moreno, 2014;Morton et al, 2011;O'Neill et al 2013;Somerville & Hassol, 2011) Increase of problem awareness in relation to the users' evaluation of both content reliability and medium type (Namukombo, 2016;Newell & Dale, 2015;Spartz et al, 2015;Taddicken, 2013) Only short-term behavioural changes (Arlt et al, 2011;Jacobsen, 2011;Russill, 2011) Potential increase of people engagement thanks to their interactive character (Leas et al, 2016) Use of emotional values involve users (Höijer, 2010) Use of emotional values involve users (Veltri & Atanasova, 2015) Media messages filtrated by both individual values/ background (e.g. political orientation) and external factors (e.g.…”