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

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (01) ◽  
pp. A02 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilia Lopera ◽  
Carolina Moreno

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.

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Van Aelst ◽  
Rosa van Santen ◽  
Lotte Melenhorst ◽  
Luzia Helfer

AbstractThis study on the role of media attention for the Dutch question hour answers three questions: to what extent is media attention a source of inspiration for oral parliamentary questions? What explains the newsworthiness of these questions? And what explains the extent of media coverage for the questions posed during the question hour? To address this, we present a content analysis of oral parliamentary questions and related press coverage in five recent years. The results show first that oral questions are usually based on media attention for a topic. Concerns about media influence should however be nuanced: it is not necessarily the coverage itself, but also regularly a political statement that is the actual source of a parliamentary question. The media are thus an important “channel” for the interaction between politicians. Second, our analysis shows that oral questions do not receive media attention naturally. Several news values help to explain the amount of news coverage that questions receive. “Surfing the wave” of news attention for a topic in the days previous to the question hour seems to be the best way to generate media attention.


2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Schmid-Petri ◽  
Dorothee Arlt

AbstractThis article uses quantitative content analysis data from June 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013 to examine the salience and construction of scientific uncertainty about climate change in German and British press coverage using quantitative content analysis data from June 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013. The results show that uncertainty about climate change − against overwhelming consensus among climate scientists − is prominent in the press coverage of both countries. The findings indicate that it is important to distinguish whether scientific uncertainty can be found at the level of single articles, or at the level of the coverage as a whole. The study also reveals that uncertainty is constructed differently in German and British press coverage in terms of the media’s framing of climate science and the types of actors who are involved in the construction of scientific uncertainty.


1986 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 431-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Matas ◽  
N. El-Guebaly ◽  
D. Harper ◽  
M. Green ◽  
A. Peterkin

The public image of psychiatry has been tarnished in recent years. In order to determine the extent to which press coverage has contributed to negative attitudes towards psychiatry, we conducted a content analysis of a random selection of newspaper articles which appeared over a twenty-year period in two different newspapers. We found that although there had been some minor, cosmetic changes over the years, such as more appropriate headlines and more direct quotes from psychiatric experts, on the whole, content and attitudes had changed very little. An accuracy check of media reporting of forensic cases over a 20-year period revealed that when reporters have access to written material, the accuracy levels are greatly improved.


Author(s):  
Marina Dekavalla

This paper presents preliminary findings from a wider study into the form that political debate takes in Scottish and English/UK newspapers’ reporting of the 2001 and the 2005 UK Elections. The research project aims to contribute to the discussion regarding the role played by the Scottish press in political deliberation after devolution and compares its contribution to the electoral debate with that of newspapers bought in England. This paper explores the results of a content analysis of articles from daily Scottish and UK newspapers during the four weeks of each election campaign period. This reveals that, despite some differences, the overall picture of the coverage of major election issues is consistent. A selection of the coverage of taxation, the most mentioned reserved issue in the 2001 campaign, is subsequently analysed using critical discourse analysis, and the results suggest more distinction between the two sets of newspapers.


2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (02) ◽  
pp. A03 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunver Lystbæk Vestergård

A significant number of mass media news stories on climate change quote scientific publications. However, the journalistic process of popularizing scientific research regarding climate change has been profoundly criticized for being manipulative and inaccurate. This preliminary study used content analysis to examine the accuracy of Danish high quality newspapers in quoting scientific publications from 1997 to 2009. Out of 88 articles, 46 contained inaccuracies though the majority was found to be insignificant and random. The study concludes that Danish broadsheet newspapers are ‘moderately inaccurate’ in quoting science publications but are not deliberately hyping scientific claims. However, the study also shows that 11% contained confusion of source, meaning that statements originating from press material or other news outlets were incorrectly credited to scientific peer-reviewed publications.


Author(s):  
Nirmala Thirumalaiah ◽  
Arul Aram I.

Climate change conferences had wide media coverage – be it on newspaper, radio, television or the internet. The terms such as ‘climate change', ‘global warming', and ‘El Nino' are gaining popularity among the public. This study examines the news coverage of climate change issues in the major daily newspapers—The Times of India, The Hindu in English, and the Dina Thanthi, Dinamalar, and Dinamani in regional language (Tamil)—for the calendar years 2014 and 2015. This chapter describes how climate change influences nature and human life, and it is the basis for social and economic development. The news coverage of climate change and sustainability issues helps the reader better understand the concepts and perspectives of environment. Climate change communication in regional newspapers and local news stories may increase the public's interest and knowledge level regarding climate change and sustainability issues.


Author(s):  
Julia Metag

Content analysis is one of the most frequently used methods in climate change communication research. Studies implementing content analysis investigate how climate change is presented in mass media or other communication content. Quantitative content analysis develops a standardized codebook to code content systematically, which then allows for statistical analysis. Qualitative analysis relies on interpretative methods and a closer reading of the material, often using hermeneutic approaches and taking linguistic features of the text more into account than quantitative analysis. While quantitative analysis—particularly if conducted automatically—can comprise larger samples, qualitative analysis usually entails smaller samples, as it is more detailed. Different types of material—whether online content, campaign material, or climate change imagery—bring about different challenges when studied through content analysis that need to be considered when drawing samples of the material for content analysis. To evaluate the quality of a content analysis measures for reliability and validity are used. Key themes in content analyses of climate change communication are the media’s attention to climate change and the different points of view on global warming as an issue being present in the media coverage. Challenges for content analysis as a method for assessing climate change communication arise from the lack of comparability of the various studies that exist. Multimodal approaches are developed to better adhere to both textual and visual content simultaneously in content analyses of climate change communication.


Author(s):  
Toby Bolsen ◽  
Matthew A. Shapiro

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science. Please check back later for the full article. Most of what people think about politics comes from information acquired via exposure to mass media. Media thus serve a vital role in democracy as a fundamental conduit of political information. Scholars study the factors that drive news coverage about political issues, including the rise of discourse on climate change and shifts in media coverage over time. Climate change first received sustained attention in the U.S. press in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As scientific consensus emerged on the issue, interest groups and other actors emerged who accentuated the inherent uncertainty of climate science as a way to cast doubt on the existence of scientific consensus. The politicization of climate science has resulted in uncertainty among the public about its existence, anxiety about the effects of a fundamental transformation of U.S. energy systems, and support for the status quo in terms of the use of traditional energy sources. Media coverage often magnified the voices of contrarian scientists and skeptics because journalistic norms provided equal space to all sides, a semblance of false balance in news coverage that has persisted through the mid 2000s. By this time, the U.S. public had fractured along partisan lines due to rhetoric employed to generate support by elites. Media fragmentation and the rise of partisan news outlets further contributed to polarization, especially given the tendency of individuals to seek political information about climate change from trusted and credible sources. More recently, new media has come to play an increasingly significant role in communicating information on climate change to the public. Ultimately, there is a need for knowledge-based journalism in communicating climate change and energy alternatives to all segments of the U.S. public, but doing this effectively requires engagement with a broader audience in the debate over how best to address climate change. “Honest brokers” must be referenced in the media as they are best equipped to discuss the issue with citizens of different political identities and cultural worldviews. The success of collective efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change requires not only scientific consensus but the ability to communicate the science in a way that generates greater consensus among the public.


Author(s):  
Allan Mazur

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science. Please check back later for the full article. Global warming was not on public or media agendas prior to 1998. In summer of that year, during an unusual heat wave, The New York Times and other major U.S. news organizations saliently reported warnings by NASA scientist James Hansen that the earth is warming. This alarm quickly spread to secondary media and to the news media of other nations. According to the “Quantity of Coverage Theory,” public concerns and governmental actions about a problem rise and fall with the extent of media coverage of that problem, a generalization that is applicable here. Over the next few years, global warming became part of a suite of worldwide issues (particularly the ozone hole, biodiversity, and destruction of rain forests) conceptualized as the “endangered earth,” more or less climaxing on Earth Day 1990. Media coverage and public concerns waned after 1990, thereafter following an erratic course until 2006, when they reached unprecedented heights internationally, largely but not entirely associated with former Vice President Al Gore’s promotion of human-caused climate change as “an inconvenient truth.” By this time, the issue had become highly polarized, with denial or discounting of the risk a hallmark of the political right, especially among American Republicans. International media coverage and public concern fell after 2010, but at this writing in 2015, these are again on the rise. The ups and downs of media attention and public concern are unrelated to real changes in the temperature of the atmosphere.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 39-48
Author(s):  
Natalia Organista ◽  
Zuzanna Mazur

During the last Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the Polish female representatives won sig-nificantly more medals compared to men. This fact made the authors examine whether female athletes received proportionate media coverage compared to men. In the course ofresearch, articles from the two largest Polish dailies were analysed (“Gazeta Wyborcza” and “Fakt Gazeta Codzienna”). With the use of content analysis, 197 articles were analysed in order to check whether any quantitative and qualitative differences can be observed in describing women's and men's sport. The results show underrepresentation of press coverage regarding women's sport. The results of qualitative analysis also point to a number of differences when portraying women's and men's sport.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document