News media plays an important role in shaping public knowledge about the scientific, social and political dimensions of climate change. While previous research has noted variation in media framing across countries, the relationship between media frame use and national context remains under-investigated.
Hong Tien Vu of the University of Kansas, USA, and colleagues conduct a content analysis of 37,670 news articles published between 2011 and 2015 from 84 publications covering 45 countries to explore popular media frames and assess their macroeconomic and political context. They find that globally climate change news was most frequently discussed in terms of international relations (for example, UN conferences and international agreements), followed by economic impact and social progress. Notably, news in countries with higher gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was more likely to be framed in terms of scientific evidence and domestic politics, while countries with lower per capita income more often emphasized international relations and physical impacts (for example, melting glaciers and natural disasters). Although climate change is a global phenomenon, this research suggests distinct national constructions of the issue are possible.
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Yeeles, A. National frames. Nat. Clim. Chang. 9, 647 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0572-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0572-z
