(DIS)COVERING CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE AUSTRALIAN PRESS
Research outline
This report is a preliminary analysis of the mapping of three mainstream
Australian’s newspapers (The Australian, Herald Sun and Sydney Morning Herald), in
order to investigate the strategies and the ways media is covering the subject of climate
change. As a counterpoint, there is also the analysis of participative media, such as
Greenpeace and CANA (Climate Action Network Australia) websites.
Some questions oriented the analysis, such as: within the analyzed period, is there
a significant coverage about climate change issues? If so, are they related to any special
event? How is it contextualized? How is the diversity of voices expressed in the news?
Are there different perspectives to approach the subject? Is there an environment or eco
section? Which terminologies are mostly used? Are adaptation and mitigation strategies
being considered? If so, how? Is there any education approach?
As this study does not cover all the months necessary to assure a journalistic
routine about climate change, this is only an approximation of some tendencies and
identification of an agenda.
I start with a briefly introduction about how global media has been covering
climate changes since the 1960’s, ie, which were the events that catalyzed the climate
change agenda in the press. The relevance of this overview is due the tendency of specific
events structuring the media agenda on climate change issues, and therefore forging its
visibility.
I follow with an analysis of the press coverage on climate change in the end of
2006, where two main events marked the agenda about climate change coverage: the Al
Gore’s documentary (An Inconvenient Truth) and the Stern Report. These events seem to
have allowed the journalists and reader to familiarize with the facts and the agenda
related to the phenomena, having a great amount of news published in this period.
Subsequently this overview, I present a general profile of the press coverage
about climate change issues through five topics: the main agenda, the context
information, relations of development and climate change, voices, and mitigation and
adaption.
Besides the content analysis of the news, this report also presents a connection
between the writing styles of the mainstream and participative media regarding the
coverage of climate change. Therefore it is presented a brief explanation of some points
of style manuals used by journalists, especially their strategies to draw attention to
straight news or features articles. These approaches indicate clues about the strategies
used by the press and participative media when concerning and debating about climate
change issues. The mitigation strategies were assessed within this panorama, being one of
the main issues considered in the analysis.
Methodology
The data gathering is divided into two stages:
1) Mapping news regarding climate change issues from the 12th of March to 01st
of April 2008 (20 days) in three mainstream online newspapers and two
participative media websites:
o The Australian
o Herald Sun
o Sydney Morning Herald
o CANA (www.cana.org.au)
o Greenpeace (WWW.greenpeace.com.au)
2) Mapping news regarding climate change issues in scope of two meaningful
events for the climate change agenda: the Al Gore’s documentary An
Inconvenient Truth (released on the cinema on 14th of September 2006 and on
DVD on 21st of November 2006) and the Stern Report (released in the UK on
30th of October 2006). The period of this data gathering is from the 15th of
September to 01st of December). It was accessed at the New South Wales
library, and the following newspapers were were available through
microfilms:
o The Australian
o Herald Sun
o Sydney Morning Herald
The objective of the proposed methodology is to analyze the style and discourses
used by media when referring to climate change issues. In order to capture styles,
tendencies and approaches on the subject of climate change I opted for the content
analysis. Therefore I propose a preliminary codification instrument for the newspapers’
reports, giving the research a quali-quantitative character. However, this study is a small
sample considering the long period climate change has been covered by the mainstream
media (manly since the 1980’s). Therefore, this analysis can be considered rather a
qualitative than a quantitative one, although I consider the frequency a theme is referred
within the climate change debate.
The online newspapers reports are copied and saved in hard disc. Thus the
material will be available for further needs, as for example a database about climate
change and media. The data gathered in the months of September and December 2006,
regarding Al Gore’s documentary and Stern report releases were photocopied and are to
be handed to the project researchers coordinators, along with the analyze sheets
(categories of analysis) and the online printed news.
Categories of analysis (codification)
1) Newspaper’s report headline
2) Newspaper’s name
3) Date of the publication (including the day of the week)
4) Section
401 Economies
402 Social
403 Cover
404 Special
5) Place in which the event occurred
6) Coverage modus
601 Editorial bureau
602 Reuters
603 AFP
604 Correspondent
605 Journalist
7) News’ location (in the page)
701 Centre
702 Centre left
703 Centre right
704Centre inferior
705 Centre superior
706 Superior left
707 Superior right
708 Inferior left
709 Inferior right
710 All the page
711 Superior
712 Inferior
8) Picture:
801 Yes
802 No
9) Whether there is a picture, identify the source
901 Photographer authorship
902 Agency authorship
903 No authorship
904 Newspaper’s data base
10) Image description
11) Authorship (when Agency)
1101 FP
1102 AP
1103 Reuters
12) Plane:
1201General plane
1202 Foreground
1203 Medium plane
13) Subtitle
1301 Yes
1302 No
14) Journalistic gender:
1401 Information
1402 Report
1403 Interview question-answer
1404 Opinion
1405 Editorial
15) Voices
1501 Politic parties
1502 Education
1503 Non governmental institutions
1504 Society
16) Direct quotation
1601 Yes
1602 No
17) Episode/event in which the subject (climate change) is approached
18) Media products related to climate change
1801 Yes
1802 No
19) If it is a media product release, specify which:
20) Allusion or referring to economic and/or regional agreements
21) Specific uses of terminologies (tendencies of terminologies that are often used)
22) Page number
22 + the page number
Qualitative questions – no codification
1) Characteristics, observations and specificities of the news
None – 111
Not applicable - 222
The global media coverage about climate change
The media coverage about climate change became more intensified after 1980.
However, there are relevant records since the 1960’s, when the Conservation Foundation
organized an important event about climate change. In the same decade, the science
consultant of the president of the United States of America alerted for the human causes
of Climate Changes (Ungar, 1992). In the 70’s and 80’s, several reports worldwide were
declaring about the problems related to clima alterations. According to Ungar (2000), in
1988 several factors contributed to a rise in media coverage both in the USA and the UK
(Boykoff & Boykoff, 2004). Among them was UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's
statement to the Royal Society of London that it was possible that with climate change,
"we have unwittingly begun a massive experiment with the system of the planet itself"
(Leggett, 2001).
Another important statement that acted as an important news value in order to
make climate change part of the media agenda was the statement of NASA’s scientists
James Hansen to the US Congress: "warmer temperatures were caused by the burning of
fossil fuels and not solely a result of natural variation" (Shabecoff, 1988). In the 90’s, in
the Clima World Conference, scientists asked for immediate actions to deal with the
climate change causes. The press covered all these events. Currently, the main events we
had so far as a “boom” for the visibility in the global media about climate change was the
Stern Report (September 2006) and Al Gore’s documentary (November 2006).
Hence, as it is common with the media agenda, important statements and events
like the ones above generate substantial media coverage, and thus are greatly responsible
of the society awareness concerning climate change and the physical impacts felt because
of climate change. (Ungar, 1992).
Ungar (2000) presents a graphic to show the increase of the coverage on climate
change in the USA and UK. In the Australian press it may be not different, although there
is not a study reflecting specifically the media coverage within Australia. However, as the
Australian newspapers have mainly news from international agencies (North American
and British, such as Reuters and AP) as well as foreign newspapers (as the New York
Times), there is a great possibility to have a similarity in the coverage growth.
Newspaper coverage of climate change in the USA
and the UK (Ungar, 2000)
An Inconvenient Truth and the Stern Report catalyzing climate change
visibility in the media
Since the last trimester of 2006 the approach about Climate Change gained a
relevant expression in the three analyzed Australian newspapers. This visibility is clearly
related to two important releases at the end of 2006: Al Gore’s documentary An
Incovenient Truth (released on the cinema on 14th of September 2006 and on DVD on
21st of November 2006) and the Stern Report (released on the UK on 30th of October
2006) and also to occurrences of natural phenomena seen as consequences of clime
alterations.
Prior these releases, it seems there was a tendency to address climate change
issues more likely under the approach of natural phenomena consequences, such as
drought, flooding, water saving, etc. without using so frequently the expression “climate
change” and mitigation. Especially after the Stern Report and Al Gore’s documentary, the
use of this expression became more usual, being often used in headlines.
Especially in the period of the documentary release, and even in the sample of
2008, there is a tendency to report back to the documentary. In the week after the release,
most of the news about climate change were about explaining, criticizing or commenting
the movie. If the news was not directly about the documentary and Al Gore, there was
usually a quotation about it. These quotations might be in the headline, lead or main text,
although not specifically talking about the movie, but rather using it as an introduction
and a way to drawn the reader’s attention.
Global warming is no commie plot, The Australian, 19th of September 2006.
Lead: “Climate skeptics on the Right never let inconvenient truths cloud their propaganda”
Don’t be Gored into going along, The Australian (Column), 12th of September, 2006
Lead: Global warming militants don’t know what they’re talking about, warns William Kininmonth
There were also incidences of using the documentary’s title as headlines for issues
not having any relation to climate change and environment, showing the title was
becoming a “jargon” among journalists. For example, the following news was about the
death of an Australian soldier:
A Convenient Truth, The Australian, 23-24th of September 2006.
In 2007 and 2008 there is still the recalling on Al Gore’s documentary and Stern’s
Report as a parallel subject to debate about other issues on climate change. Most of them
mention them under political agreements, economic approach and impacts of climate
change such as rising temperatures, melting iceberg and retreat of glaciers:
Garnaut’s inconvenient truth on power, Herald Sun, 26 of March 2008
Lead: Australian governments face some inconvenient truths about electricity and petrol under an
emissions trading scheme (ETS)”, the Federal Government’s chief economic adviser on climate change
says.
Go green and save: ethical investments are good for your pocket, Sydney Morning
Herald, 28th of November 2007
Lead: “After Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth was released last year – followed by a review by Sir
Nicholas Stern, the former chief economist of the World Bank – the perils of unmitigated climate change
seemed suddenly to hit home.
Usually mitigation actions are addressed when talking about consequences, as it
will be discussed further on. However, there are incidences of other forms within this
period, such when rarely connecting art, climate change and mitigation actions. For
instance, the following news is about a comedian who was inspired by Al Gore’s
documentary to make his show and became an environmental activist, talking on his
show about actions to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. The British humorist Mark
Watson states that none of the media coverage before Al Gore’s documentary has been
particularly meaningful to him, confirming the visibility given by the media through Al
Gore’s documentary to the society. This news has the following headline and lead:
Heard the one about how to stop global warming, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 of
March 2008
Lead: It is one thing to see a film and feel moved by it; it is quite another to start a movement. But this
is exactly what happened to the British stand-up comedian Mark Watson when he saw An
Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s call-to-action climate-change documentary.
In the period of the publication of the Stern Report and Al Gore’s documentary
(especially in November and beginning of December), there has been also identified
other news patterns:
November was the only month within the sample in which Climate Change news
appears on the newspapers’ covers, underlined by both events.
The term “climate change” dominated the headlines and sub-headline in this
sample.
The voice is given mainly to Al Gore in the debate about climate change, not only
to talk about his documentary and workshops, but concerning climate change
issues in general. It was in this period that the term “sustainability”, especially
through and economic approach, was explored by the media, not being often
explored in the later sample. The “ethical investment” is a terminology that now
appears often, discussed widely on Al Gore’s speeches. The “green behavior” is
supposed to be related to economy and be considered as an “ethical investment”:
Gore’s changes on the road to sustainability, Sydney Morning Herald, 18-19th of
November 2006
Lead: The climate evangelist is walking the talk on ethical investment. Al Gore has already made
the world rethink how it views global warming, and now he wants the investment management
world to rethink how it goes about its job.
With the high amount of news published in the period, there is a diversity of
themes approached and more space for personalized and singular coverages,
allowing a variety of voices. Therefore, climate change issues not usually in the
agenda have more possibilities to be covered. For instance, there is the relations
and comparison among richer and poorer countries regarding climate change
issues, their implications, responsibilities and ethical actions:
An Inconvenient cost: cutting carbon emissions will hurt the world’s poorest, The
Australian (Opinion), 12th of September, 2006
Lead: Former’s vice president Al Gore is playing a valuable role in popularizing debate on the
vexed issue of global warming.
Minorities will suffer most from climate change, Sydney Morning Herald, 11th of
March 2006
This period also fostered the debate of climate change issues on features articles,
opinion and columns, giving a broader interpretation of the phenomena.
There is the high incidence of international agreements and having as background
the finance perspective. Therefore many of the news are in the section “Finance”
or “Money”. There is also a high presence of news within the Nation section,
revealing the impacts of global warming in Australia, indicating raising
temperatures and lowering rainfall as consequences.
Also in the end of 2006 the Kyoto Protocol and the discussion about its
ratification and ineffectiveness in cutting greenhouse gas emissions was often
mentioned in the media coverage.
Issues addressed under the perspective of warning and fear is a common strategy
used by the both mainstream and participative media in 2006. The warnings
appear in different forms, but usually under the environmental or economic point
of view and claiming governmental action:
Plenty to fear as climate changes, Sydney Morning Herald, 25th of March 2006
Lead: An international report showed Sydney to be highly vulnerable to climate change
Sceptics must warn to reality of climate change. Sun Herald. 10th September 2006
Report warns climate may spark depression, Sun Herald, 29th of October 2006
A Stern Warning. Sun Herald. 31st of October 2006
Warnings from the Bush, CANA website, 31st of March 2008
Biodiversity: Australia's
unique flora and fauna are at
risk from climate change.
CANA's visually stunning
and informative report on
how climate change will
effect Australian wildlife and
wild lands.
Another form of warning, not so recurrent but also noticed, is about the
consumption of claimed “green products”. Products and companies are pointed
out as making use of the “green label” to optimize the selling and actually do
not correspond to what is expected of an environmental friendly product. This
focus is placed usually in the section “money”, relating it to economy. Again
there is the claim of more government and environmental organizations
vigilance and actions to diminish false propaganda and help to identify genuine
projects and products:
Green products: reduce your carbon imprint but don’t be taken for a ride.
Sydney Morning Herald, 28th of November 2006
Lead: It’s hard to buy a new car, get on a plane or even attend a major event these days without
being presented with options to offset the carbon dioxide emissions linked to these activities.
In general, the end of 2006 was the period that corroborated to climate change
debate to become a strong news value1, which will most likely go on persisting in the
global and Australian media. As we have seen, since 1960 important events are dictating
the agenda about climate change. The British economist Nicholas Stern, in the first pages
of his (now) famous report – Stern Review-, states that the scientific evidence is alarming
and frightening, and that climate change is presenting dangerous global risks and demand
a global response urgently. This character of urgency, the effects of climate change on
people, and the scientific evidences has drawn the media attention.
Adding to it, Al Gore’s documentary corroborated offering powerful images,
which contributed to displace the abstract idea of climate change to very concrete facts.
From the glaciers melting to the tornado Katrina, the stories of real and ordinary people,
the negative impacts, previsions of more disasters and scientific data basing all the
expositions shaped the construction of the news value. The fact both events were
practically concomitant, corroborated to make climate change become a strong news
value and have a great impact in media and society. Besides, the voice of an economist,
Nicholas Stern, displaced the problem, which was before mostly an environmental one, to
the economic sphere. Also the agenda of the “clean energies” played a great role by
broadcasting the issue. The idea of living a global problem demanding global solutions
also forged a broader coverage on climate change:
Time to act on global warming, Sydney Morning Herald, 31st of October 2006
Lead: “At best, it is no longer possible to prevent some damage to the world's climate and weather
patterns; at worst, greenhouse gas pollution could induce a change in global temperatures so
dramatic it would rival the last ice age, a British report on climate change says.” AS the Al Gore
documentary, under the perspective of dramatic”
Other factors also corroborated for a greater visibility on the media such as the
obligation of the private sector and governments to enunciate about the subject. Also the
international coverage influenced the increasing of news on climate change, considering
the high presence of sources from international newspapers and news agencies.
1
News value determines why some themes become news and have a relevant visibility within the means of
communication and others do not.
GENERAL PROFILE OF THE AUSTRALIAN PRESS COVERAGE ON
CLIMATE CHANGE
1) The main agenda
In order to understand the news value, it is important to shed a light in the ways
the agenda about climate change takes place in the media. Thus, one step is to identify the
themes that are priorized within the climate change debate.
There were identified three main themes in the mainstream newspapers:
greenhouse gas emissions, energy and consequences/impacts because of climate change.
There are other subjects that appear less frequently, but also constitute the media agenda
such as international actions, agriculture, water restrictions, development and causes of
global warming, mitigation, legislation, scientific research, ozone layer, industry, extreme
climatic events and catastrophes, technological issues, vulnerabilities, consume, services
and victims due climate change.
Besides these most quoted themes, there are some events that fostered the climate
change agenda in March 2008, especially the three following:
1) In the second week of March 2008, there has been an increase on publications related
to climate change and heatwaves in Australian cities, considering the abnormal high
temperatures in cities such as Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. There is mainly a
comparative approach, and often climate change is taken as synonym to global warming.
2) On 30th and 31st of March there were twelve news in total about climate change due
the Earth Hour. This event dictated the agenda on climate change for these days, being
responsible for a considerable increase of publications. Some of them were specifically
about the Earth Hour, and others mentioned it in order to develop another discussion. In
this case, issues that are not often mentioned have had visibility, such as mitigation
strategies related to the society and society opinions about climate change issues.
3) The third event was the Emission Trade Scheme (ETS) discussion, increasing the
publications about climate change, especially from 25th to the 26th of March 2008 because
of the Government announcement about the possibility to exclude Petrol from the ETS.
There were, just in the Herald Sun, five news within two days, which is a high amount
considering the same newspaper had only ten news published within the data gathering
period (12th of March to 01st of April). The main subject in all the newspaper was how it
was going to shape up economy.
Within the March sample, a great part of the news are under Economic and
Money section, evidencing a high concern with the economic perspective. In this case,
there is a focus on the expenses, opportunities, economic benefits, society consume
patterns and economic models and agreements. However, this does not necessarily mean
a thoroughly discussion from these perspectives. For instance, there are more information
about costs of the economy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and statistics than
solutions and answers. Other themes are not explored in the sample, such as the focus on
technology, social and cultural issues and changes in behavior.
Nevertheless, the environment perspective is the main way the media addresses
climate change issues. In this approach, it is common to present facts about the
environment risk and threats relating them to climate change, such as glaciers melting,
drought, fire and species extinguishment concerning wildlife and plants. It is also
common to present short movies when referring to climate change under the
environmental perspective, usually showing the impacts of global warming such as the
glacier melting:
Antarctic is shelf risk, Sydney Morning Herald, 27th of March 2008.
Gore: Warming crisis most threatens Australia, The Australian 11th of November 2006.
Total fire bans as southern states suffers record heat, Sydney Morning Herald, 15th of
March 2008
In this environmental perspective, it is explored the need to prevent climate
change effects and the expectation of an urging action from the government. Usually the
mitigation practices are related to this theme, associating the disasters with the need of
action, as will be discussed later on.
In the three newspapers this kind of news are commonly written by an
environmental reporter or editor, indicating a regular space to debate environmental
issues, including climate change and global warming. In the Sydney Morning Herald,
this kind of news are placed under the tag Global Warming, within the Climate Section,
indicating this newspaper has a constancy in covering climate change issues.
There are other patterns and recurrent themes about climate change in the
mainstream media, framing the agenda, such as:
The tendency of the press to refer mostly to the expression “global warming”
than the idea of “climate change”, ie, it takes the part by the whole and is mostly
associated to greenhouse gas emissions.
The coverage about climate change has mainly an international focus. Most of
the news report deals about the international setting or relates international
trading to the Australian context.
The need to reduce the output of carbon dioxide and switch to renewable
sources of energy is one of the main themes of the mitigation agenda, and it is
also the one most quoted issue by special advertising reports. In these kind of
reports, the common approach is to use the direct speech and mitigation
strategies – “what you can do at your home”, emphasizing the society action.
The advertisements in format of news became a common strategy in the three
newspapers. As an example, there is a large advertisement of a warehouse
company, published in the Herald Sun newspaper on 17th of March 2008. Below
there are three of the nine advertisement-news:
Save Energy
Climate change is a serious global
challenge for all of us. Around one
third of our energy usage happens in
homes, accounting for around 36% of
greenhouse gas emissions.
By reducing your energy use at
home, your actions can help make a
positive impact on climate change….
and you’ll save money too!
How to Brochures
We have over 100 brochures available online, please
find some of our energy saving brochures below:
How to Save Energy Around the House
How to Winter Proof Your House
We Live Here Too
We take our commitment to
sustainability very seriously. We
consider that our operations are
sustainable when they are socially
responsible, environmentally sound
and economically viable.
Our team is always looking for new
ways to improve the sustainability of
our operations and to ‘do the right
thing’.
In this case, it is common to have several pictures for each report, showing people
saving energy by doing ordinary tasks, as replacing an ordinary bulb for energy saving
bulbs or doing other environmental friendly actions, as planting a tree, participating in
environmental workshops or not using plastic bags. In this kind of advertisement it is
also offered climate change brochures, environmental reports and links to websites
concerning environmental issues, mainly with instructions to save energy. The word
“sustainability” is often employed, which is a term not being used commonly in news.
This kind of reports mostly uses the perspective of social responsibility and actions,
indicating ways for the society to inform themselves and inculcate the need to change
habits. The direct speech, emphasis on individual responsibility and education approach
is also a common strategy on NGO’s websites, such as Cana and Greenpeace. However,
this approach is lacking on the mainstream coverage.
There is also the occurrence of a Special Report in The Australian newspaper on
the 19th of March. It compromised six news at the same day about climate
change, most of them concerning the three main themes covered by the media
(greenhouse gas emissions, energy and consequences/impacts). The news in this
special report is debated through the following perspectives: the environmental
perspective, presenting environmental incidences and disasters as consequence
of global warming, such as glaciers melting, heatwaves, fires and drought; the
business and economic perspective, relating to business adjustments and
structural changes to economy because of interventions related to climate
change and focus on the cutting of gas emissions; and the political perspective,
especially debating about emissions trading (including the ETS), energy plans,
international politics campaign on climate change and carbon taxes.
2) The context information
Although the sample period in March 2008 is brief, there are some tendencies and
patterns framing the press coverage on climate change issues. From the 12th of March to
01st of April, there were in the three online newspapers 32 news about climate change.
The Australian had 16 news, followed by the Sydney Morning Herald with 11 news and
at last the Herald Sun, with 5 news. The Sydney Morning Herald has a relatively
constancy in publishing news about climate change, in approximately one news every
two days.
The Australian, the newspaper with the greatest number of publications, had
nearly every day a report, increased by a high percentage of columns and editorials about
climate change. As the Sydney Morning Herald, the number of publications increased
within the days of the Earth Hour event. In the three mainstream newspapers the
coverage about climate change is very similar, having some specificities about the
localities and coverage modus.
The space given in the newspaper to cover climate change issues by the
environmental perspective varies. Only the Herald Sun does not have an Environment tag
in the online edition. Regarding the other two newspapers (the Sydney Morning Herald
and The Australian), both of them have an Environment section. The Australian
newspaper has rather a general approach, having a Climate tag in which all news having
an environmental perspective are comprised. The SMH is more specific, and has an
Environment tag in which there are other subsections, related to the most frequent issues
on environment: global warming, whale watch, conservation, water issues, energy smart
and Earth Hour. The climate change news are mainly placed within the global warming
tag, although there has been news within the water issues and energy smart tags. That is
one of the reasons of the high incidence of news about climate change in this newspaper,
having a regularly coverage on climate change issues.
Regarding the other sections of the newspapers, there is a high presence of
climate change issues within the Nation, International, Politics, Economic and Business
sections. The section in which the news is placed relies on the perspective it is assessed.
The discussion about climate change has been addressed mainly in both sections, the
International and Nation, showing a certain balance between what is being discussed
abroad and within the country.
There are other main converging points in the three newspapers about the climate
change agenda, such as:
The newspapers frequently use international news agencies (especially AP and
Reuters), giving an international approach to the coverage.
A great number of advertisements of products regarding climate change, which
was not so visible until the end of 2006. It turns to be often advertisements
about ecological cars, lamps, fridges, university courses on environment and so
on. Usually this kind of propaganda appears nearby or within the section in
which climate change is the main issue being discussed. The advertisements
related to global warming appear in all news having climate change as main
subject.
The newspapers tend to compare greenhouse gas emissions, especially within
NSW (Herald Sun) and within Australia (The Australian), making use of
ciphers, graphics and statistics. It is pointed out the quantity and the causes of
the high/low gas emission, but not the solutions.
Climate Change ‘can be measured daily, Herald Sun, 25th of March 2008
All the newspapers have an environment editor and some news are written by
an environment reporter. This kind of coverage is usually under the
environment perspective. It shows the space regarding environmental issues
within the media is getting more prominent and institutionalized.
One important strategy on the online newspapers is to offer an interactive
reading through hyperlinks. That is also a strategy commonly used by
participative media (Greenpeace and CANA), linking key words to its
explanations and contextualization. Mostly the links are directed to Wikipedia
or other websites related to the subject, giving the reader the prompt possibility
to go deeper into the subject. In the mainstream media, the tool is used in
Opinion, Columns and Blogs sections. For example, in the article Two reports
on the cost of climate change. Guess which gets reported? (Sun Herald,
Opinion, 31/10/06) there are hyperlinks to Wikipedia from key concepts and
words like “climate change” and “Al Gore”.
Another strategy that fosters people’s debate, actions and information on
climate change issues are the Blogs in the online newspapers and participative
media. The three newspapers offer this interactive strategy, giving the reader
the option to post comment at the end of the articles within the Blog section.
Readers might discuss among themselves about the article, amplifying the
column approach. It is possible to check the most commented columns, and
each column indicates how many comments it had been posted. For example,
the articles about climate change in The Australian had an average of 20
comments. Following there is an example of the public comments to an article
about the prior environment minister Peter Garrent’s arguments about the Stern
Report, published in The Australian:
Stern Review 'exaggerated' costs of climate change, The Australian, 31st of
October 2006
Comments (13)
Andrew:
So the report was an estimate based on the best case scenario for climate change. And
Peter automatically seems to discount this because of it based on the best case scenario.
How about before he runs and jumps around that we actually get a report that is based on
the worst and median and then we can make decisions on climate change rather than
jump to conclusions.
Jet:
Actually the Stern report is based on a "worst case" scenario. The fact is the ramifications
of not planning for the worst case scenario are massive, far reaching and will last for a
LONG time. In this case - there we (humans) should not pick the scenario that suits our
political or economical goals, but one that see us making real and meaniful changes so
that we don't kill our planet - it not like we can just pack up and move to another one...
yet!
Dan:
If Rudd wants us to be "more than just China's mine and Japan's beach" this is one of the
obvious areas to do it. Seriously invest in our great scientists and get cracking on the
development of renewable technologies NOW!!!!
Dan:
Andrew, what part of this article leads you to the conclusion that Garret "automatically
seems to discount" the report?
Ben:
Actually, the Stern review was based upon the worst case scenario, not the best. But you
have to remember that the warming that we have seen to date has been worse than the
worst case scenarios modelled a decade ago.
There is only one conclusion: We have to reduce our emissions by a large fraction in a
short period of time.
Craig:
Open your eyes people....We have environmental change due to over populated human
activity. Deforestation, fishing, agriculture, pollution (Air, Water and Land). We are
introducing more GM crops and eating GM foods daily. We are exposing ourselves to
pollutants (sprays, aerosols, deodorants, vehicle emissions) at levels which our body's
have never had to deal with before in history . We are in extreme danger. There will be
unexpected hazards with cancers and genetic deformations due to our activities.
We urgently need to focus on energy technologies which will take us into the millennia.
We need to change our diets to be more responsible to ecological sustainability.
We need to excersize and relax and think about our futures.
Stop working so hard... take time out and think... is that to scary for you?
Windward:
Woe, woe, woe is us! Pestilence and plague will be visited on the land! We are all
doomed! Widows and orphans will lack the means to live. Catastrophe, disaster,
Armageddon! Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will ride again. Here's to disaster,
catastrophe and all that good stuff, Im sure.
John Edge:
The Productivity Commission may criticize the Stern Report for basing its' calculations
on the highest temperature increases, BUT the reality is that the temperature rises that are
currently occurring are actually on the highest temperature rise predicted trend line.
So Stern evidently seems to be the one who is on track with the temperature trend - not
the Productivity Commission. It's important to get those fundamentals right. (NB I'm only
relying on this ABC article for the analysis of the new Productivity Commission report).
It is really worth taking note on what was predicted in climate change models in the past
for the current period, and what is actually occurring. Most climatologists seem to agree
that it's happening faster than predicted. One of the concerns, is that if we underestimate
climate change impacts, then we wont get our response right - on an adatation or GH
reduction level. So the question is: is there an ongoing review option with the
Productivity Commissions report. If not, there needs to be. Because climate change is
very fluid as new information comes in, which can change the whole perception on
predictions. For example, it's well known that the IPCC report in Feb 2007 failed to
included "positive feedbacks" - whereby climate change becomes self-accelerating
(because of government politics). This is huge, because it could cause a dramatic increase
in AGW impacts. This has to be built into the economic models for those models to be
meaningfull.
Although there are several reports about climate change published and a regular
space for it, it seems there is still a lack of contextualization. Only a few of the texts
approached at the same time causes, consequences and solutions. By presenting causes,
solutions or consequences, the newspapers value the impacts and offer less space to
comprehend what lead and are leading to the changes and what are the ways to deal with
the problem.
Therefore, the coverage is focused more on the consequences than causes and
solutions, concentrating on the ecological, economical and also, but less frequently, on
public health and security consequences. Nevertheless, there have been incidences
showing Australia as responsible not only for the causes, but also for the solutions taken
to minder the climate change effects.
When addressing the solutions, it is mainly under feature articles, editorials, and
interviews, and less in the straight news. This kind of approach is still rare and is covered
usually due a specific event about Climate Change, such as the Earth Hour. Despite this
kind of events, there is a tendency not to enter into details of the public actions towards
the solutions, but rather to present governmental intentions to seek for solutions and
interventions. When talking specifically about mitigation and politics, it is approached
mainly through the action of the government in Environmental agreements, especially the
Kyoto Protocol whilst the debate about its ratification.
3) Relations of development and climate change
Whilst the importance of connecting climate change issues to the development
agenda within the debate of solutions, there are only few reports concerning this issue in
the mainstream media. When covered in the mainstream media, this issue is mainly
debated through the voices of governments, private sector and sometimes by institutions
of research and education. Hence, there are some incidences relating urban development
and climate change written by specific professionals in the mainstream media, like urban
affairs reporters and environmental reporters.
On the other hand, the relation of development, climate change and solutions is
broadly broadcasted in the participative media, associating issues such as: sustainable
development, economic growth and development, human and social development, and
strategies of development. For instance, the relation among rich and poor countries within
the climate change and development perspective is thoroughly debated in the
participative media, forging readers to take actions:
Adapting to Climate Change: What's Needed in Poor Countries and Who Should
Pay, CANA website, March 2008
Lead: Oxfam's new report on what it will cost poor countries to deal with climate change, and who
should be responsible for paying is a real eye opener. Oxfam calculate that the costs of adaptation for poor
countries will be at least $50bn per year, and that Australia should be providing 2.9% (or about $1.5
billion). The longer that we take to reduce our greenhouse pollution, the more damage we cause and the
higher our responsibility is.
In the newspapers’ sample of March, there was just one brief reference about
relations of rich and poor countries regarding climate change. It was framed into the
Kyoto Protocol theme, and was not the main issue of the news.
4) Voices
The newspapers in general have a diverse source of voices, consulting different
social actors, such as government, specialists, universities, NGO’s and foreign
governments. However, the highest incidence is from governmental institutions,
especially from politicians, economists and environmentalist ministers. It is also frequent
to have news agency reports and foreign newspapers (Reuters, AP, New York Times,
etc.), dictating the agenda and voices, giving a broad and international character to the
coverage. Therefore, the official voice is the most quoted, including Australian and
foreign governments’ and specialist’s voices, mainly in the Politics, Nation and World
sections.
The diversity of voices is mainly presented in features articles, special reports and
blogs. Adding to it, the diversity of voices is not usually heard within the same news,
especially the straight news.
There is a low presence of individual and specific groups talking about climate
change. However, there has been some coverage about climate change having as subject
specific group actions to reduce greenhouses gas emissions in the end of 2006,
corresponding to a typical diversity of themes of this period. An example is the report
about the hairdressers in Sydney Morning Herald, giving also a more “local” character to
the news coverage on climate change:
Hair-care revolution, Sydney Morning Herald, 28th of November 2006
Lead: Harsh hair products are going the way of the squeaky clean myth – they’re history.
[…]Salons cut use of hairy chemicals […]. Just as customers have embraced “green” living many
hairdressers are doing their part.
In general, it is not usual to give voice to the society to enunciate about climate
change issues. When it happens, usually under especial events, there is also another rare
voice taking place: people linked to environmental organizations. In these occurrences,
the space given is usually to talk about consequences, like heatwaves, and the news are
sometimes personalized with pictures of families, groups or individuals either suffering
the consequences or doing some mitigation practice:
Rain on the horizon, but none here, The Australian, 18th of March 2008
Charles Laverty with daughter Josephine, 7 owns property west of Goulbourn and has had no relief from
the drought. Picture: Vanessa Hunter
The community approach is also enunciated when referring to renewable energy
and household electricity generation, inferring the government and society needs to act
towards climate change issues.
Another gap in which climate change is “given a face” are in events such as the
Earth Hour. In this occasion people, families and children are given voice to talk about
climate change. The pictures under these circumstances are about ordinary people,
voicing opinions about climate change and also their actions toward mitigation practices.
Also multimedia resources are used to cover this kind of event, presenting videos,
interviews, pictures and hyperlinks to eco reports in the newspaper’s website:
Earth Hour Competition ,Sydney Morning Herald, 31st of March 2008
Like Ben Lee says, "we're all in this together". So in the lead-up to Earth Hour tell us in 25 words or less
what you're doing for Earth Hour or what steps you're taking to reduce your own carbon footprint.
Our gift to the World, Sydney Morning Herald, 31st of March 2008
Crash course ... Ewa Grannall, her children, Tom, 7, left, and Anika, 4, with their lanterns at Gough
Whitlam Park in Earlwood
Regarding the visibility of society statements within the frame of social events,
there is also a higher incidence of news concerning climate change consciousness and
mitigation strategies departing from the society itself, which is part of the mitigation
agenda.
5) Mitigation and adaptation: translating it to the media agenda
In the mainstream media, there is more attention drawn to mitigation than
adaptation. The private sector, Australian and foreign governments and society are
pointed out as the main actors responsible for mitigation strategies by the mainstream and
participative media. When we focus on technologies or specific practices – energy offer,
transport, climate change protests, etc. – these social actors are differently addressed. The
government appears as main responsible for strategies related to energy, reductions of
greenhouse gas emissions and environmental agreements; the private sector points out the
technologies and practices related to agriculture and industry; and the society, with fewer
incidences in the mainstream media, is addressed when talking about immediate actions
such as switching daily habits and environment protests. However, in general the main
subject regarding mitigation strategies is about energy offers and reducing the carbon
imprint, in either governmental or society perspectives.
Other mitigation actors, such as NGOs representatives, society in general,
families, etc. are less frequent, however they are given space mainly when there is a
specific debate or event in the agenda, like the Stern Report and Al Gore’s documentary
release, the ETS debate and Earth Hour. These social actors and their strategies are
usually not part of the central discussion, but they rather have a “lateral space” in straight
news, and also are more often referred in editorials, articles, columns, interviews and
blogs. In the same perspective, there is also a higher presence of news about mitigation
strategies in the end of 2006 because of the Stern Report and Al Gore’s documentary.
News claiming for action are more common in this :
From Promise to action (special report), The Australian 27th of November 2006
The most common mitigation strategies presented by the press, including the
period of November and December 2006 are:
The water and energy restrictions strategies are mostly presented under the
environmental perspective, ie, climate change as being responsible for
environmental problems, such as drought and ozone layer damage. It has an
education approach by showing through pictures, graphics, tables and manuals
how to save water and energy and the possible consequences of not doing so.
Both of these main themes concerning mitigation strategies (water and energy
restrictions) are also related to economic factors, mainly regarding the advantage
of saving money if adhering to mitigation practices.
One common strategy of the participative media to forge mitigation is offering
access to manuals to inform about climate change issues, mitigation and
adaptation. The mainstream media also published manuals and handbooks
showing step by step mitigation strategies. One example is the Sydney Morning
Herald Eco, in which it claims the need to “achieve a sustainable future” and
proposes “10 practical things Australians can do at home and at work to make a
real difference”, bringing mitigation processes to the hands of society:
Turning Down the Heat: A Climate Change Action Agenda for
Australia
CANA has launched a comprehensive set of policies required to avoid
dangerous climate change, and to strengthen our economy. First we
need to start with a target to reduce our climate change pollution by at
least 30% by 2020. Then implement a set of policies to ensure we meet
this target, create a safe climate for our children, build employment and
ensure our economy is well placed to compete in the new carbon
The terminology “action” and the imperative tense are mostly employed when
talking to society, in both mainstream and participative media.
Glaciers melting at an “alarming rate”, The Australian, 18th of March 2008
Lead: The world's glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, requiring immediate action to prevent
further constraints on water resources.
Do or die for threatened species, The Australian, 31st of March 2008.
Lead: Australia needs to urgently identify land that can act as refuges for native wildlife and plants
threatened by climate change and decide how to minimise the number of species that will face
extinction, a disturbing report by the CSIRO has warned.
Take action, Greenpeace website, 28th of March 2008
Lead: With a whole planet to save, we need your help.
You have the power to create positive environmental change around you, from your garden to
your government. You can help Greenpeace win global campaigns or start your own community
campaign.
There are few incidences showing the public opinion engagement about the
issue of climate change and mitigation. In this case, it is common to refer to
Australian society awareness about climate change and what Australians are
doing to prevent global warming.
The term “mitigation” is quoted in the some news relating to this subject,
however it appearance is much lower than the participative media. In this
case, the focus lies on the solutions rather than causes, and addresses to
ordinary practices such as for instance deciding which tree to buy for
Christmas in order to be “environmentally correct” or changing daily habits:
Clear Conscience, Sydney Morning Herald, 28th of November 2006
Lead: The eco fairy are up, the recycled paper chain decorations have been made, now all that is left is
the Christmas tree. The debate over the relative merits of the real and artificial Christmas trees is a long-
standing one, but with the new focus on climate change and dwindling natural resources, it has become
hotter than ever this festive season.
The most suggested practices to change society actions in order to diminish
greenhouse gas emission in the mainstream media are reducing the shower
time, doing less barbecues, avoiding to use clothes dryer, checking if faucets
are not dripping, using energy efficient lighting, turning off appliances at the
wall, using less the car, avoiding air conditioning and looking for “green
products”. Most of the reports associate this kind of actions to money saving,
giving the ciphers of how much a person would save per year if adapting to
these procedures. Therefore, there is commonly the association between
economy and mitigation:
What can Australia do to reduce output of greenhouse? Costs to economy to
reduce greenhouse gas, The Australian, 12th of March 2008.
Lead: Climate Change targets are achievable”. In the past 12 months climate change has been
a major political, economic and – some would say – moral issue. For all the debate, the
central question is relatively clear – what can we do in Australia to reduce the output of
greenhouse gases without scarifying our quality of life in the short term?
Especially when related to events such as the Earth Hour, there is more space
to show what the society is doing about mitigation practices. One example is
the report of the ways a couple reduced their energy consumption, reinforcing
the importance of little steps taken by society as mitigation practices:
All it takes is a pair that cares, 27th of February 2008
Carbon friendly … Lucy Buxton and Craig Pinnet will be switching off their lights for Earth Hour next
month.
The visibility of mitigation practices in the participative media is much stronger
than in the mainstream. This debate is taken by the NGOs as a movement which needs to
be fought for rather than just a data presentation. Particularly the CANA (Climate Action
Network Australia) has a mitigation approach, presenting an extended paper in their
website called “Australia’s mitigation potential: why Australia should not receive another
special deal”, written by researchers from the University of Technology in Sydney. In the
same NGO, there is a detailed report entitled “Turning down the heat: a climate change
action agenda for Australia”. Also Greenpeace has a regular space to discuss and forge
mitigation practices, under the Climate Change and Energy tags, including the latest news
releases about the subject. The NGO website has also a section to clarify the concept of
climate change and other key words related to it.
Nonetheless, both of the participative media emphases the urgency to act on
climate change issues not only by changing ordinary things in daily life, but rather the
mentality and a consistent change in lifestyles. This adaptation approach typically from
the participative media is rarely find in the mainstream media. The only occurrence using
directly the term “adaptation” in the March 2008 sample of the mainstream media is
within the international politics approach. It was specifically about politician USA and
UK securing a global climate change deal in a speech pronounced by Tony Blair: “by
2020 we will be thinking about adaptation rather than prevention”. (Blair leads climate
campaign, The Australian, 15th of March 2008). This discourse is related to a usual
approach in the mainstream and participative media when referring to mitigation: the
previsions of greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy sources, climate change
measures and government policies to reduce it:
Previsions of increase of greenhouse gas: 20% by 2020. Sydney Morning Herald,
27th of February 2008.
25% Renewable Energy by 2020, CANA website, March 2008
Fast track for seabed storage of emissions, Herald Sun, 19th of March 2008.
Rudd must commit to 2020 targets, Greenpeace website (latest news), March 2008
The Stern Report and Al Gore’s documentary are extensively quoted in the
reports, papers and news produced by the participative media when referring to
mitigation, and are also frequently used as a source by newspapers.
Other reports, such as the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) are
mostly quoted on the participative media when referring to mitigation and adaptation.
Also in the participative media there is the preoccupation in explaining concepts, which
does not occur in the mainstream media. Mitigation, adaptation and even climate change
concepts are thoroughly scrutinized.
On the other hand, there are some similarities with the mainstream media agenda.
In the NGOs there is also the economic approach, especially focusing on how to
strengthen Australian economy through policies to avoid dangerous climate change
effects. Both of them inflict to the reader the need to act promptly, such as engaging in
environmental movements, pressure Governments about environmental policies and daily
chores and habits changes. The participative media goes further on by calling the reader
to participate in actions like petitions, volunteer work, participation in workshops and
seminars and participation in public programs.
Another common strategy to drawn attention to mitigation practices used by both
participative and mainstream media is the use of strong images about natural disasters
when talking about interventions, including videos and pictures:
Ice shelf 'hangs by a thread', Sydney Morning Herald, 25th of March 2008
.
Splitting image … the Wilkins Ice Shelf breaking apart.
Antarctic ice shelf risk, Sydney Morning Herald, 26th of March
Video: Global warming blamed for massive shelf disintegration.
The Health Benefits of Mitigation Global Warming in Australia, CANA website
To alert the public and authorities to the
health dangers of climate change,
CANA has published a report “The
Public Health Benefits of Mitigating
Global Warming”. We have also helped
to organize an environmental health
summit with the Australian Medical
Association (AMA), which has helped
to get health professionals engaged in
the climate debate.
On the other hand, there is a tendency of the participative media to relate pictures
of renewable energy sources to mitigation. Nevertheless, there are also few incidences in
the mainstream media with the same connection, instead of using images of natural
disasters. Also the extensive use of graphics and scientific data to illustrate mitigation
potential and practices is used by both media:
Clean Energy, Greenpeace website (News and Events)
Clean energy is the solution for our planet's future.
Our place in the sun, Sydney Morning Herald, 23rd of February 2008
JOURNALISM AND THE STYLE MANUAL: A BRIEF OVERVIEW
The way journalists write is part driven by personal skills and part determined by
the style manuals, having the objective to make the news appealing to the reader as well
as present a consistency of data and arguments. Some newspapers have their own style
manual, but basically all the manuals are based in the same rules. For example,
journalistic prose is explicit and precise, and tries not to rely on jargon. As a rule,
journalists will not use a long word when a short one will do. They use subject-verb-
object construction and vivid, active prose. They offer anecdotes, examples and
metaphors, and they avoid abstract ideas.
Style Manuals do not just dictate the grammar, structure and sentences
constructions, but they also forge a consistency in the style of the documents in a
newspaper. This may be more flexible for columns and editorials, allowing a broader
approach about the subject in its contents and style of writing and even sources and
voices, as noticed in the coverage about climate change.
In the case of subjects that need to be relied in scientific facts such as climate
change, there is also the issue of language and translation. Some of the challenges of
reporting on climate change are inherent to the differences in language—in both lexicon
and usage—between science and the public. Scientists tend to speak in cautious language
when describing their research, and to discuss implications of their research in terms of
probabilities. For journalists, this is difficult to translate into the sharp, unequivocal
commentary that is valued in communications institutions (Ungar, 2000).
The most important structural element of a story is the lead, which is usually the
first sentence, or in some cases the first two sentences, and is ideally 20-25 words in
length. This makes writing a lead an optimization problem, in which the goal is to
articulate the most encompassing and interesting statement that a writer can make in one
sentence, given the material the journalist has to work. A lead can be a hard lead or soft
lead. A hard lead aims to provide a comprehensive thesis which tells the reader what the
article will cover. A soft lead introduces the topic in a more creative way, and is usually
followed by a brief summary of facts.
Example Lead-and-Summary Design
In 2003 Australia had the highest per capita level of new greenhouse gas
emissions of OECD countries: 27.5 tones, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistic
report Measuring Australia’s Progress, 2006. It says the main source of air pollution is
from motor vehicles. Here are our tips to drive greener and save money in the process.
Green light to go eco, Sydney Morning Herald, 2nd of November 2006.
Example Soft-Lead Design
Once upon a time, a trip to the hairdresser meant an offer of watery instant coffee
and if you were lucky, a dip into the staff bickie tin. It didn’t really matter with the acrid
stench of chemicals and hair spray wafting from the collective tresses, you’d be lucky to
enjoy your cuppa anyway. At today’s progressive salons, not just the coffee ha changed.
Just as customers have embraced “green” living many hairdressers are doing their part.
Salons cut use of hairy chemicals, Sydney Morning Herald, 28th of November 2006.
Both styles are used in the texts about climate change; notwithstanding, it is more
common to have the soft lead in feature articles and opinion columns than in the straight
news. One of the most common forms to “hook” the attention is the dramatic action,
which engages the reader into wondering what the consequences of the action will be.
That is often used by both participative and mainstream media, especially when referring
to the consequences of climate change.
The inverted pyramid is the structure of the news. The journalist starts with the
essential and most interesting elements, with supporting information following in order of
diminishing importance. This structure enables readers to quit reading at any point and
still come away with the essence of a story. It allows people to enter a topic to the depth
that their curiosity takes them, and without the imposition of details or nuances that they
would consider irrelevant.
A feature article is an article that is not meant to report breaking news, but to take
an in-depth look at a subject. While there are no precise guidelines on the differentiation
between features and news stories, features are often significantly longer than news
articles, are more likely to be written from a personal perspective, and unlike news stories
do not always deal with the events of the immediate past. While straight news stories
always stay in third person point of view, feature articles may be in the first person.
Instead of offering the essence of a story up front, feature writers may attempt to lure
readers in, which is also a common strategy for columnists.
Feature stories often deeper into their subjects, expanding on the details rather
than trying to concentrate on a few important key points. The writing style of the articles
can employ a more complex narrative structure than the pyramid, sometimes resembling
the style of a nonfiction book more than a news report.
Although features stories is a resource mainly used by the participative media,
there is also a significant amount of features articles and news stories in “feature style”
on the mainstream media about climate change, especially in the period of Al Gore’s
documentary and Stern Report releases and Earth Hour. That is to say, in order to have
features articles in a newspaper about a certain subject, the news value of this subject is
to be strong.
Final considerations
Understanding the news value of a subject, the agenda and how is it being voiced
gives clues about the media coverage and how people are getting informed about a
specific issue. In the moment it is identified some tendencies on the media coverage, it
can be pointed out some gaps, but also strategies that may corroborate to other
institutions when addressing issues on climate change.
In what concerns the mainstream media, there is a lack in diversifying the
coverage beyond the environmental, economical and scientific perspectives. Although the
mainstream media has been covering regularly issues about climate change, there is still
the need for a thoroughly connection among climate change and other broader and
important social issues.
The emphasis on the responsibility of individuals to corroborate to mitigation
practices is approached by both of the media. Nevertheless, the mainstream media faces
some challenges, especially in what concerns the coverage of mitigation and solution
approaches. For example, it should move beyond the preoccupation of mainly presenting
to the Australian society the ways climate change affects the economic development and
bills reduction if adhering to mitigation practices. As done by the participative media,
there could be a greater coverage about the different strategies to engage against the
problem on a broader perspective.
There is also the need for a greater connection and communication between the
participative and mainstream media. It can be noticed by the different approaches on
climate change of both media, the lack of issues connecting development and climate
change and the little representation of participative voices in the newspapers.
The educational perspective on climate change definitely relies on the
participative media, offering workshops, volunteering work, seminars, news about
interventions in schools about climate change issues, and focus on changing the lifestyle
and mentality and not only specific behaviors.
Another important point is the lack of contextualization of the mainstream media.
The media coverage is fairly convinced about the climate change agenda and the
demanded public politics, so that it is considered enough to approach the subject with no
further explanations. Therefore climate change issues are treated as a frame for itself, a
closed issue with its own enunciation. One example is the tendency to create the effect
that all the ecological problems are connected to climate change (Ungar, 2000).
Weingart, Engels e Pansegrau (2000) point out that this circularity discourse within the
climate change coverage in the media may be because the scientific field produces a
discourse of possibilities (because it is based in probabilities), whilst the media produces
a discourse of assurance. Therefore the media produces closed assumptions.
Regarding this tendency, the economist, Anthony Downs argues there are five
stages for the attention of a specific issue in the mainstream media:
1. The pre-theme stage: it occurs when the problem exists, however it did not received
much public attention, even if specialists and specific groups have alarmed about the
issue
2. The alarmed finding and the euphoric enthusiasm: is the period in which the problems
and the damaging consequences are broadcasted to society.
3. The costs in order to offer solutions.
4. The gradual decline of interest about the subject, which is related to the difficulties to
solve it
5. The post-problem stage: when the subject enters a limbo phase.
The Australian press has already passed through the first and second phase, and
might be passing by the third one. What is coming next may be the most important
indicator of how press will go on treating this subject, and how other events likewise the
Stern Report and Al Gore’s documentary would revive and change the direction of the
mainstream debate on climate change.
Hence, the ideal outcome for this research would be achieved with a thoroughly
longitudinal study about the coverage of the subject in the media at least for one year,
including 2006 because of the Stern Report and Al Gore’s documentary releases. That
way is it possible to analyze the increase, frequency and changes/patterns of the climate
change agenda, giving a quantitative character to the analysis.
As a further intervention, it would also be interesting to interview environment
editors and reporters who have been writing about the issue, especially those who did
special reports and feature articles on climate change within the mainstream and
participative medias. Hence, the analysis could lie also on their (production) point of
view, and not only from the reception interpretation.