by Merle van Berkum
Climate change is one of the key crises of our time, but its complexity often makes it difficult to fully understand. Our perception depends heavily on media coverage While some studies have looked at the coverage of climate change in the field of science, risk and environmental communication, I would like to bring a new perspective with my doctoral thesis: a comparison of different countries, taking into account historical responsibility and international relations.
My interest in my dissertation topic was driven by a personal desire to better understand the climate crisis and its representation in the media. Climate change is no longer a “neutral” scientific topic, but is deeply intertwined with global conflicts over responsibility, development and dependencies. Accordingly, an analysis of climate reporting must also take into account international relations that are shaped by colonial history and the resulting historical responsibility.
In my PhD thesis, I examined how climate change is reported in five African countries – Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa – in comparison to three (historically) major greenhouse gas emitters Germany, the UK and the US. While these countries have always been major emitters, they are also feeling the effects of climate change themselves. The study also examined how global power dynamics and international relations influence media coverage of climate change.
Structure of the study: combination of content analysis and interviews
The overarching question of my research was: How do different countries report on climate change in comparison – also with regard to international dynamics? The work is based on sociological approaches to journalism research and postcolonial perspectives It combines a quantitative content analysis of 1,348 news articles with 18 semi-structured interviews with journalists to shed light on the different national perspectives and experiences on global debates. The study examined how the global challenge of climate change is presented in five African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa) as well as in Germany, the UK and the US.
Comparative reporting: global differences and similarities
I approached this study with different hypotheses and spent three years researching this complex topic at the intersection of climate science, media systems and international relations and structures. The results showed that reporting on climate change often has a strong national or even local focus, even though it is a global issue. In contrast to an often truncated “Africa is one country” approach, the research shows the extent to which climate change reporting in Africa, while covering a global issue, is reported through the specific national lens of each country. The news values of relevance and proximity play a particularly important role here International relations and power dynamics are usually only addressed indirectly by – consciously or unconsciously – emphasizing certain voices, actors and regions Furthermore, contrary to the assumption, it is evident that there is no clear distinction in media coverage between “active” countries, which contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, and “passive” countries, which only have to bear the effects of climate change. This binary classification no longer does justice to today’s complex reality.
Conclusions and future prospects
Overall, this study contributes to the growing discourse on climate journalism, with a critical look at international power structures. This approach is not limited to the analysis of climate change reporting but can also be applied to other topics.
This article, Global topic, global reporting?, Climate change in African countries and countries in the Global North was originally published by the European Journalism Observatory on July 24th