Master Thesis MA Journalism - Specialization ‘Newspaper Journalism’
Global Journalism in
Global Crises
A Cross-National Comparison of Climate Change Framing
Surrounding the 2009 Copenhagen Summit.
“Globalization is a fact of life. But I believe we have underestimated its
fragility.”
A
BSTRACT
T
ABLE OF
C
ONTENTS
Introduction ... 1
1. Background on the 2009 Copenhagen Summit ... 4
1.1. Aim and outcome of the Copenhagen Summit ... 4
1.2. Position of countries under study during negotiations ... 6
1.3. Events surrounding the Copenhagen Summit... 8
2. Theoretical Framework ... 11
2.1. Framing Social Reality: on News Content and Context ... 11
2.2. On Global Journalism ... 13
2.3. Climate Change: Framing Global Crises ... 16
3. Methodology ... 22
3.1. Research Design ... 22
3.2. Method of analysis ... 23
3.3. Sample ... 28
4. Results ... 31
4.1. Content: Story topics or themes in coverage on climate change ... 32
4.2. Global News, Global Outlook and Global Representations ... 36
4.3. Relationship between content and Global Journalism ... 49
5. Discussion ... 55
5.1. On Content: Story topics or themes in coverage on climate change ... 55
5.2. On Global News, Global Outlook and Global Representations ... 60
5.3. On the relationship between Content and Global Journalism ... 65
Conclusion ... 69
Works cited ... 73
1. Coding Agenda ... 82
2. Definitions of domestic, foreign and global news... 84
3. Definitions of a priori defined frames ... 85
4. Domestic, foreign and global outlook on power, space and identity ... 86
L
IST OF
T
ABLES AND
F
IGURES
Figure 1: Rich and poor countries could not agree on whether developing countries should aid in mitigating global warming. [Source: International Herald Tribune] ... 5Figure 2: Climate change skeptics quickly argued that ‘climategate’ was proof of a scientific conspiracy. [Source: The Conservative Libertine] ... 9
Figure 3: “Despite broad scientific consensus balanced covering permitted a small group of skeptics to have their views amplified.” [Source: unknown] ... 19
Figure 4: Prevalence of frames in headings per country ... 34
Figure 5: Prevalence of a priori defined frames in paragraphs per country ... 35
Figure 6: Presence of global representations within headings and paragraphs with a global outlook ... 39
Figure 7: Prevalence of domestic, foreign and global news in headings per country... 39
Figure 8: Paragraphs with domestic, foreign and global news per country... 40
Figure 9: Prevalence of domestic, foreign and global outlook in the headings in all countries ... 41
Figure 10: Presence of domestic, foreign and global outlook in paragraphs per country ... 42
Figure 11: Globalization of news in headings per country ... 44
Figure 12: Globalization of news content in all paragraphs per country ... 45
Figure 13: Domestication of headings per country... 46
Figure 14: Domestication of news content in paragraphs per country ... 47
Figure 15: Which global representation is most emphasized when framing a global outlook in headings in each country ... 48
Figure 16: Which global representation is most emphasized when framing a global outlook in the paragraphs in each country ... 49
Figure 17: Relation between news and thematical content for all countries under study ... 50
Figure 19: Relation global news and story topics per country... 52
Figure 20: Relation between thematical content and global outlook per country ... 53
Table 1. Prevalence of thematic frames in all countries under study………..32
Table 2. Presence of domestic, foreign and global news in all countries under study……….37
Table 3. Presence of a domestic, foreign and global outlook in all countries under study………..37
Page | 1
I
NTRODUCTION
This thesis analyzes the newspaper coverage of the 2009 Copenhagen Summit on climate change in quality newspapers in The Netherlands, Belgium, Bolivia and Venezuela. Since climate change is considered a global crisis, it is argued that global action is needed to mitigate its effects and to adapt to a changing climate. Global crises have furthermore proved to be conceived of and understood through the worlds news media; in consuming news about crises the awareness of a globalizing world among the readers is deepened and secured. An in-depth understanding of the way climate change is being framed in the worlds’ news media will thus not only help to understand how the notion of climate change is perceived but also how a globalizing world is being framed.
The term ‘framing’ in this research refers to the process of selecting certain aspects of an event, issue or topic, with the aim to promote a particular aspect of the event, topic or issue within a story (Entman, 1993). All news media not only transmit facts but also attitudes and beliefs of media organizations and journalists. A frame does not just emphasize certain themes or topics, this is just one aspect of a frame. Since climate change is a global crisis, additionally this research to identify frames in terms of the themes or topics they emphasize but foremost if and how climate change is framed as something ultimately global, thus whether journalists practice global journalism when framing climate change. Global journalism is defined by Berglez either as encompassing global news or as framing in accordance with a global outlook on reality. A global outlook on reality, he argues, “seeks to understand
and explain how economic, political, social and ecological practices, processes and problems in different parts of the world affect each other, are interlocked, or share commonalities” (Berglez, 2008, p. 847). The
domestic outlook on the other hand “puts the nation-state at the centre of things when framing social
reality”. Global journalism is part of the process called globalization, and at the same time global
journalism can be interpreted as speeding up globalization processes.
Page | 2 Previous research furthermore suggests that media coverage on climate change is influenced both by the news content and news context. News content is in this research defined as the themes or topics emphasized in the language of news which determines the way in which news events are being framed.
News context departs from the notion that the nation state influences coverage to a higher or lower
degree when framing social reality. Earlier research (Shanahan, 2009) suggests that regarding climate change a difference in framing emerged between developed countries on the one hand and developing countries on the other. Furthermore, it has been shown that news media from countries with different political agendas towards climate change frame climate change differently.
In order to contribute not only to knowledge on framing of global crises but also to gather more empirical knowledge about the prevalence of global journalism, and in light of the above comments, this research appraises the following research question:
What is the context and content in which global journalism emerges in the newspaper coverage on climate change and the Copenhagen summit, in The Netherlands, Belgium, Bolivia and Venezuela? The following sub questions aid in answering this question:
SQ1: Which story topics or themes are emphasized in the coverage of climate change and the 2009 Copenhagen summit?
SQ2: What are the differences and similarities between the Netherlands, Belgium, Bolivia and Venezuela in covering the issue?
SQ3: How does global journalism occur in the newspaper coverage on climate change and the 2009 Copenhagen summit in the Netherlands, Belgium, Venezuela and Bolivia?
These countries were chosen to be compared for a number of reasons, among them the fact that research into these countries is sparse, which will be further elaborated on in Chapter 3. The case of the Copenhagen Summit in 2009 was chosen because this summit has gained more media attention than similar summits. The case will be further elaborated in Chapter 1.
Page | 3 systematic and replicable (Bryman, 2008). This method of analysis furthermore proves to be fruitful to study framing, since this method is essentially about coding communication and the language of news. This research will show that global journalism is a distinct and observable phenomenon in the coverage of a global crisis, and that indeed the context and content of news influences the coverage on climate change. It demonstrates that the coverage surrounding the Copenhagen Summit in 2009 has been framed as global news in a considerable amount of articles, and that the frame of global responsibility is most prevalent when framing news with a global outlook. This study will furthermore show that global journalism is emerging both in developed and developing countries, thus providing evidence for the assumption that global journalism penetrates different nations and (political) cultures all over the world.
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1.
B
ACKGROUND ON THE
2009
C
OPENHAGEN
S
UMMIT
In order to fully understand the case being studied, it is considered necessary to give some background information on the specific case chosen. This chapter will discuss the 2009 Copenhagen Summit on climate change. An analysis of climate change as a broader issue will be presented in subchapter 2.3. The aim of this chapter is to give more knowledge on the case in order to be able to analyze the results in this research with the events during the 2009 Copenhagen Summit in mind. This will better aid in understanding what events and issues might have influenced media coverage on the Summit. This chapter will provide the reader with more information on the aim and outcome of the summit
(subchapter 1.1.) and it will shortly outline the stance of the Netherlands, Belgium, Bolivia and
Venezuela, which are the countries studied in this research (subchapter 1.2.) Furthermore, it will give information of important events surrounding the negotiations (subchapter 1.3.).
1.1.
A
IM AND OUTCOME OF THEC
OPENHAGENS
UMMITThe 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, better known as the Copenhagen Summit, included the 5th Meeting of the Parties (MOP 5) to the Kyoto Protocol, and the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, 2009). The summit took place from 7 - 18 December 2009 in Copenhagen.
This summit was held to acknowledge the belief of most of the world’s governments that climate change poses a threat to humankind and the environment (see chapter 2.2. for more elaborate information on climate change). In 2007, 192 governments agreed to work on a global agreement to mitigate climate change. Negotiations began for a new treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; one that was “bigger, bolder, wider-ranging and more sophisticated” (BBC, 2009a) than the existing Kyoto Protocol. The negotiations were supposed to be concluded in Copenhagen and sealed by a new global treaty on how to mitigate global warming.
Page | 5 BBC correspondent Richard Black “in Copenhagen everyone talked, but no-one really listened” (Black, 2009).
Developed nations argued that major emerging economies such as China and India had to commit themselves to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, while these nations in turn argued that rich nations grew wealthy because of the way they polluted the environment, thus holding them responsible for mitigating climate change. The United States and China were the two main players in these negotiations; all countries wanted them on board in the new accord, but for a long time they did not seem to be able to reach an agreement.
Furthermore, countries could not agree whether rich countries should aid poor countries in adapting to climate change. Since poor countries are more vulnerable to the consequences of a rising temperature and the rich countries caused global warming, developing countries demanded the richer countries should pay for what they caused. On December 16th, one day before world leaders arrived, expecting to only have to sort out some details, the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’ reported that the climate talks were 18 hours behind schedule: “With just two days remaining, the inability to overcome
disagreements about the shape of a deal to combat global warming led to hours of inaction today (Vidal and Stratton, 2009).” The BBC reported that “experienced observers have rarely seen a UN summit more ineptly chaired (Black, 2009)”.
Figure 1: Rich and poor countries could not agree on whether developing countries should aid in mitigating
Page | 6 The conference eventually did result in a document called ‘the Copenhagen Accord’. The accord was essentially negotiated between US president Barack Obama and representatives of China, India, Brazil and South Africa, somewhere in a back room (BBC, 2009). Obama also consulted France, Germany and the UK. This resulted in a situation where the White House announced an agreement, while most other delegations had not even seen the document. The Venezuelan delegate defined the agreement as a “coup d’état against the authority of the United Nations” (BBC, 2009). Most countries in the conference eventually voted to ‘take note’ of the text, but some countries strongly opposed it, including Tuvalu, Ecuador, Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela (see chapter 1.2.).
Since not all countries supported the accord, the summit did not result in a legally binding deal or any binding commitments for countries. It called on countries to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, but could not force countries to do so. No global target for cutting emissions was agreed upon and the text of the Copenhagen Accord is unclear about how rich countries will aid poorer countries in adapting to climate change (NOS, 2009). Positively, this treaty got major economies such as China and the United Stated involved in the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, which was something the Kyoto Protocol did not achieve.
The Copenhagen Summit attracted more media attention than other Climate Summits in the years leading up to and after 2009. The fact that long-term negotiations that were supposed to be rounded up in Copenhagen instead resulted in bickering between nations and clear divisions along lines of developed and developing countries, could explain part of this increased media attention.
1.2.
P
OSITION OF COUNTRIES UNDER STUDY DURING NEGOTIATIONSPage | 7 European ministers of finance agreed in October 2009 to provide aid for poor countries with a sum of between 2 and 15 billion Euros per year, to help them adapt to climate change. According to the IMF and the World Bank at least 100 billion Euros are needed per year (Europa-nu, 2009). Both the Netherlands and Belgium maintained these European agreements.
Despite the fact that several European leaders had declared beforehand that no accord would be better than a weak one, the EU did not oppose the text, which was not legally binding and did not include a commitment of developed and developing nations to cut a comparable amount of greenhouse gas emissions. All countries agreed to ‘take note’ of the Copenhagen Accord. EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso did however express how he felt about the agreement: “I will not hide my
disappointment regarding the non-binding nature of the agreement here. In that respect the document falls far short of our expectations (BBC, 2009b).” In these negotiations the European
Union was a less powerful and influential political block than it wished to be.
Both Bolivia and Venezuela are part of a partnership called the ‘Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Latin America (ALBA)1
In order to stop climate change, the ALBA countries aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90 to 100 percent and demanded a fund from rich countries to help poor countries adapt to climate change in accordance with the amount of money the IMF and World Bank established to be necessary. The countries also wanted the establishment of an International Climate Justice Tribunal to sanction countries which did not comply with the legally binding agreement they demanded (Ridenour, 2009).
. This partnership agreed on a shared position in the climate change negotiations where Bolivian president Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez were the only two heads of state from the ALBA which were present in Copenhagen. As a result, both presidents became spokesmen for all the ALBA nations, at least in the eyes of the media. UK environment secretary Ed Miliband even accused Bolivia of “hijacking” the conference (Buxton, 2010).
The main problem for both countries seemed to be the fact that they never felt taken seriously, both in their political demands and their need to mitigate climate change. Bolivian UN ambassador Pablo Solon explained: “It seems negotiators are living in the Matrix, while the real negotiation is taking place
in small stealth dinners with selective guests (Buxton, 2010).”
1 The ALBA consists furthermore of the following nations: Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador,
Page | 8 During the negotiations Evo Morales was quoted as referring to “genocide” as being a possible result of climate change (Al Jazeera, 2009). It was clear who he blamed for what he saw as a failure in Copenhagen: “I have heard many debates in the UN where presidents condemn climate change but they
never say --cowardly enough -- what causes it. We say clearly that it is caused by capitalism (Ridenour, 2009).”
Hugo Chavez agreed with Morales, and later called the whole process in Copenhagen undemocratic and accused leaders of seeking a face-saving agreement (Democracy Now, 2009). He blamed the failure of Copenhagen on the rich countries, saying: “There are no documents presented for consultation by all.
The responsibility is a lack of political will by a few rich countries, including the host Denmark, headed by the US Empire (Ridenour, 2009).” To stress his dissatisfaction with the final statement in
Copenhagen Morales even hosted his own climate conference in Cochabamba in Bolivia in December 2010.
1.3.
E
VENTS SURROUNDING THEC
OPENHAGENS
UMMITTo be able to fully understand what might have influenced media coverage on the Copenhagen Summit it is important to highlight the most important events leading up to the summit and surrounding the negotiations.
To begin with, the Copenhagen Summit was surrounded by protest and controversy over detained protesters. On December 12th a large march was held in Copenhagen, calling for a global agreement on climate change. Between 40.000 and 100.000 people attended, of which 968 people were detained by the Danish police (BBC, 2009c), some in steel cages that were specially constructed for the climate talks (Zeller, 2009). Some protesters were reported to have been kettled and detained for several hours without access to water, food and toilets (McKie and Van der Zee, 2009). The Guardian even referred to “street battles with police” (Freeman, 2009). Protesters complained of excessive police tactics (McKie and Van der Zee, 2009), claimed to have been pepper-sprayed, and said the police had used wiretaps and undercover officers. Per Larsen, the chief officer for the Copenhagen police force, was quoted by the New York Times before the protests started, that these police actions were “surely the
biggest police action we have ever had in Danish history (Zeller, 2009).”
Page | 9 ‘Politicians loiter, leaders act’. They were eventually convicted with a suspended sentence of fourteen days (Vidal, 2009).
Furthermore, media coverage might have been influenced by the incident now referred to as ‘climate gate’. It began in November 2009, when a server at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia was hacked. Thousands of emails and computer files pertaining to climate change research from scientists that had been cited in reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were copied to the Internet. In the documents, scientists mostly discussed data analysis and details of scientific conferences, but also how the decline of rising temperatures overtime could be explained. In one leaked e-mail, the director of the CRU wrote about a “trick” he said Michael Mann used to “hide the decline” in recent global temperatures.
Climate change skeptics in the blogosphere were quick to argue that these e-mails and documents were proof of a scientific conspiracy to manipulate data on climate change and suppress criticism. According to the CRU, the documents had been taken out of context. Michael Mann, one of the scientists under scrutiny, said this controversy was part of a “smear campaign” to derail the Copenhagen Summit (Winter, 2009).
Figure 2: Climate change skeptics quickly argued that ‘climategate’ was proof of a scientific conspiracy.
Page | 10 By the time the Copenhagen Summit started, mainstream media picked up these emails and documents, causing a debate focused on the question if global warming exists at all or if it is caused by humans, instead of a debate on how best to mitigate and adapt to it.
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2.
T
HEORETICAL
F
RAMEWORK
The theoretical framework of this research is guided by theories on framing social reality, the emergence of a global public sphere, and the role of global journalism in this process. These theories aid our understanding of the characteristics of global journalism and how climate change is covered in the worlds’ news media.
Subchapter 1.1 will elaborate on the way the news media frame social reality and how this effects
audience perceptions. It will define framing for the purpose of this research and elaborate on the influence of the national context on framing and the frames most commonly used in newspaper coverage. Subchapter 1.2 will then discuss global journalism in a supposedly emerging global public sphere, as defined by Volkmer, and framing in terms of globalization and domestication of news. Global journalism is defined as containing global news and/or a global outlook on reality (Berglez, 2008). In order to elaborate on existing knowledge of the framing of global climate change and the prevalence of global journalism, subchapter 1.3 will define climate change as a global crisis and elaborate on the framing of both global crises in general and climate change in particular.
2.1.
F
RAMINGS
OCIALR
EALITY:
ONN
EWSC
ONTENT ANDC
ONTEXTJournalism is inherently ideological; news does not just merely transmit facts but also the attitudes, beliefs, and values of the makers (Ghanem, 2010, pp.201-202). Reality is created through the social process of communication (Johnson-Cartee, 2005, p.1) and the news media has a significant influence on how we perceive reality and act on it (Johnson-Cartee, 2005, 147).
Framing is one way in which the media influence perceptions of an issue. Each story we hear about climate change is framed in a certain way (Hulme, 2009a, p.225) which will affect the way audiences respond to the issue (Shanahan, 2007, p.1). Frames evoke what is already within the individual (Johnson-Cartee, 2005, p.27); complex messages like those on climate change will be communicated more successfully if the frames ‘suit’ the audience and compliments their expectations (Shanahan, 2007, p.2). This can be achieved when, for example, a journalist frames global climate change according to an already existing domestic narrative.
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“To select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described.”
Framing, in short, is about selection and salience. Entman defines salience as “making a piece of
information more noticeable, meaningful or memorable to audiences”. It enhances the probability that
consumers will perceive that information and memorize it (Entman, 1993, p.53). Frames are contained in language and can be examined and identified by “the presence or absence of certain keywords, stock
phrases, stereotyped images, sources of information and sentences that provide thematically reinforcing clusters of facts or judgments” (Entman, 1993, p. 52). Applied to the domain of news media, Semetko
and Valkenburg (2000) have identified five thematic frames that can account for most of the frames present in news media: (i) a frame that emphasizes conflict, (ii) a frame that brings a human face or emotional angle to a text, (iii) a frame that emphasizes the economic consequence of an issue, (iv) a frame that emphasizes religious tenets or moral prescriptions, and (v) a frame that emphasizes the responsibility of certain actors in relation to an issue.
Frames (i) define problems, (ii) diagnose causes, (iii) make moral judgments, and (iv) suggest remedies (Entman, 1993). However, Entman (1993, p. 52) notes that “a single sentence may perform more than
one of these four framing functions, although many sentences in a text may perform none of them. And a frame in any particular text may not necessarily include all four functions”. Framing does not have to be
a conscious decision by the journalist but rather an assumption about the social context in which the news is embedded. Indeed, scholars have found evidence for an interrelationship between the national context and the use of framing in news coverage. For example, studies have found differences between the framing of issue-cycles in French and American media coverage on environmental issues (Brossard, Shanahan, McComas, 2004), between frames in Chinese and American coverage on the fourth UN conference on women and the NGO forum in Beijing (Akhavan-Majid and Ramaprasad, 1998) and the use of framing in the discourse on whaling in British and Japanese newspapers (Murata, 2007).
Page | 13 British, Israelis and French were about to engage in a war with Egypt over the Suez Canal. Each newspaper in this research provided a different picture of the events, and used a different ‘prism’ to filter aspects of the events (Schramm, 1959). More recent examples are studies into the coverage of the war in Iraq in Arab, British, French and U.S. media (Ghanem, 2010) where Ghanem concludes the world was “watching two different wars” (p.215), or a study into the frame building of Joint Counterterrorism in Uganda and the U.S wherein the data revealed both countries frame the threats of terrorism in different ways (Kalyango Jr., 2010). Clearly, these studies indicate that news is merely “the
message about an event and not the actual event” (Ghanem, 2010, p. 201). Scholars attribute these
differences in media reporting to the national context in which journalists operate. Hence, cross
national comparisons are vital to understand the way different news regimes affect news content
(Brossard, Shanahan, McComas, 2004, p.359). Cross national comparisons are vital for a better understanding of the “whys and wherefores” (Brossard, Shanahan, McComas, 2004, p.360) of media coverage.
Furthermore, previous studies indicate that there might not only be a relationship between framing and the news context. As Olausson (2009) found, certain frames emphasize a transnational responsibility to undertake action to mitigate or adapt to climate change (p.426), while other frames emphasize the national and/or local responsibility (p.428). Through frames, media emphasize certain aspects of a 'story'; changing both the way the text is written and how it is understood. Frames are not only defined as a story topic or theme emphasized in a text, as this is only one element that constitutes the frame as a whole (Olausson, 2009, p.424). When emphasizing certain aspects of a story, news is framed with a specific outlook on reality or as domestic, foreign or global news (see 3.2). If media 'connect' with global actors/phenomena to different degrees when emphasizing different aspects of the story, global journalism should then be expected to arise in stories that emphasize certain themes or topics within a story, thus there might also be a relationship between framing and the news content. While practicing global journalism and exercising their power to influence perceptions of an issue, the world’s news media is said to be part of the processes that constitute a global public sphere (Cottle, 2009b, p. 78).
2.2.
O
NG
LOBALJ
OURNALISMPage | 14 It consists of “differentiated segmented microspheres” (Volkmer, 2003, p.13) and is said to be driven by a mode of journalistic writing referred to as “global journalism” (Berglez, 2007, p.151).
Habermas argued that the public sphere is a sphere that exists between the state and society as “a
network for communicating information and points of view” (1996, p.360). It is an important
component of sociopolitical organization, since it is the space where people come together and act as citizens. Habermas’ notion of a public sphere is frequently built upon by later scholars.
Volkmer is one of many scholars that build upon Habermas’ concept. Volkmer theorizes the emergence of a ‘global public sphere’ (Volkmer, 2003) as a result of globalization. If globalization refers to a process in which the world becomes interconnected and interdependent (Boyce and Lewis, 2009, p.vii) journalism within this global public sphere thus “makes it into an everyday routine to investigate
how people and their actions, practices, problems, life conditions etc. in different parts of the world are interrelated” (Berglez, 2007, p. 151). Although information flows across borders are not a 21st century phenomenon, Volkmer argues that in this century a new dimension of ‘internationalization’ of news has emerged. News is not merely distributed across borders but is also transmitted simultaneously in different parts of the world (Volkmer, 2003, p.10). Technological and political developments, such as satellite technology and political Cold War turbulences, have established a new transnational news sphere which deeply impacts national public spheres (Volkmer, 2003, p.11). It is characterized by globalized diversity and transforms conventional notions of a national public sphere (Volkmer, 2003, p. 11). In the current process of globalization, the notions of political identity, citizenship and the dichotomy between foreign and global news are shaped and challenged by this global public sphere (Volkmer, 2003, p.15). It impacts developed, transitional and developing nations alike and it establishes new journalistic alliances (Volkmer, 2003, pp. 11-12). Scholars of global journalism argue that it is increasingly becoming everyday routine for journalists to “investigate how people and their
actions, practices, problems, life conditions etc. in different parts of the world are interrelated” (Berglez,
2007, p. 151).
Page | 15 empirically to material (Berglez, 2008, p.846) and empirical evidence for this phenomenon is sparse (Berglez, 2008, p.846). Furthermore, previous studies have shown that news media frame even global news according to domestic narrative persistently (Hafez; 2001, p.487; Olausson, 2009; p.422). Even news networks such as CNN International or BBC World are not more global in their outlook than a national newspaper (Berglez, 2008, p.848). Despite claims that news has become increasingly more global over the last decennia (Reese, 2007, pp.243-244), Berglez argues there is a lack of empirical evidence confirming this rise of global journalism. Therefore, he proposes a more “thoroughly global
and methodologically instructive approach for the analysis of global crisis reporting” (Cottle, 2011, p.84).
Global journalism, Berglez argues, is defined by both global news and a global outlook. The absolute version of global journalism would be a combination of the two (Berglez, 2008, p.854).
Global news refers to news which is about problems that are intercontinental, and/or involve countries or regions across the world. It concerns the representation of complex relations (Berglez, 2008, pp.848-849). For example, when a journalist in the Netherlands elaborates on how climate change affects the Dutch coast, global news is prevalent, since climate change is a global problem. This example however, would not be endowed with a global outlook, but with a domestic outlook, since it frames a global problem in terms of its consequences for the own nation state, thus domesticating the news.
Globalizing the news on the other hand means that the news media frame news with a global outlook
on reality. A global outlook is defined as the epistemology of global journalism. A global outlook produces information that includes both international and transnational processes and can be produced by people with different ideological and spatial horizons (Berglez, 2008, p.848). It includes journalistic representations of global space, powers or identities.
Page | 16 identities across borders (Slevin, 2000, p.321) and the emergence of “transnational political
engagements”, (Carleheden, 2001) which mobilize political struggles without any national belonging.
The global outlook is not about technology, but evolves from the journalists’ intellectual labor. Technology, Berglez argues, makes global communication possible, as it transmits information, but technology itself is not capable of creating a global outlook. The global outlook depends on the journalists’ mode of explanation, the angle chosen or the sources selected (Berglez, 2008, p. 847). It contributes interpretations of the world that are different from the domestic outlook. The global outlook “seeks to understand and explain how economic, political, social and ecological practices,
processes and problems in different parts of the world affect each other, are interlocked, or share commonalities”, where the domestic outlook “puts the nation-state at the centre of things when framing social reality” (Berglez, 2008, p.847).
Media events that have, thanks to technology, attracted global audiences – such as the war in Iraq, the 2011 earthquake in Japan or the revolts in the Arab world - could testify to the transborder information flow (Volkmer, 2003, p. 9), but research has shown that different media outlets up to this date mainly frame events according to their home-grown narratives (Hafez, 2009, p. 329). Media content concerning the same event or topic, or global news, is not necessarily endowed with a global outlook.
2.3.
C
LIMATEC
HANGE:
F
RAMINGG
LOBALC
RISESAlthough still in its early stages, a global outlook does already exist in the daily news flow. Empirical evidence suggests that global outlooks arise almost exclusively from the coverage of global crises (Cottle, 2009b). These are defined by Cottle as:
“Endemic, constantly emergent or even enduring critical events and threats that emanate from within today’s global disorder and that range across and interpenetrate within different realms of global interdependency. They constitute material and discursive sites for actions and responses that extend, exacerbate or intensify processes of global interconnection and, potentially, can deepen awareness of today’s globality. In today’s mediated and mediatized world their elaboration and enactment within the flows and formations of the world news ecology shapes their constitution and can also variously influence their subsequent course and conduct” (Cottle, 2011, p.79).
Page | 17 possible emergence of a global public sphere or global civil society. In exercising their symbolic and communicative power, the world’s media is said to inform the processes of a global public sphere and global civil society (Cottle, 2009b, pp. 309-310). Global crises are likely to “deepen awareness of today’s
globality” (Cottle, 2011, p.79) and the presence of global journalism is mostly observed in the coverage
of global crises and other transnational issues (Berglez, 2010, p.1).
The scope of climate change is global in nature (IPCC, 2007; Shanahan, 2007, p.1) and global action is needed to adequately react to the issue (Boyce and Lewis, p.4; IPCC, 2007). The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a scientific body established by the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization, emphasizes the ‘observational evidence’ and ‘the high agreement’ among scholars about changes in the climate on a worldwide scale (IPCC, 2007a, p. 44). It emphasizes the urgent need to take action in order to reduce the vulnerability to and the impact of climate change. These impacts include conflicts, food insecurity, coastal erosion, increase of diseases and decreased availability of water (IPCC, 2007a, p. 48). Calculations by the Global Humanitarian Forum (GHF), an international non-profit organization, show that worldwide 300 million people are affected by climate change, including 300.000 people dying each year as a result of it (GHF, 2009).
Climate change is a scientific issue, and science is an international enterprise; values and norms often cross barriers (Brossard, Shanahan, McComas, 2004, p.360). However, climate change is not just a scientific narrative anymore. As Hulme states: “The full story of climate change is the unfolding story of
an idea and how this idea is changing the way we think, feel and act” (Hulme, 2009a, p. xxviii). The idea
of climate change has become far greater than the science it entails and has moved into the realm of politics, economics, popular culture and even religion; it has become a social phenomenon. Even though the scientific consensus is overwhelming, the idea of climate change carries different meanings and seems to imply different courses of action. Different values and practices across the world, in every field, be it in the field of politics, religion or economics, determine our interpretation of the scientific narrative (Hulme, 2009a, pp. xxv-xxvi).
Page | 18 handled. The news media “exercise their symbolic and communicative power” and so inform “processes
of public understanding and political response” (Cottle, 2009a, p.309).
How global crises are “signaled and defined, staged and elaborated” (Boyce and Lewis, 2009, p. vii) in the news media worldwide proves indispensable to the way the public responses to the issue. Global crises are highly dependent on the news media for their recognition and future course of conduct. For many of the world’s inhabitants it is the news media that make global crises known to their readers, viewers or listeners (Cottle, 2011, p.78; Hulme, 2009a, p.221). We rely on our newspaper, radio or television to tell us about the threats we have to face (Boyce and Lewis, 2009, p. 5). It is through the media that people first encounter global crises and in the worlds news flow diverse crises have become, as Cottle states, “signaled, symbolized and spectacularized” (Cottle, 2011, p.78). Research (Shanahan, 2007) shows how certain aspects of climate change are frequently emphasized by news media, namely; (i) scientific uncertainty as to how or if humankind attributes to global warming (scientific uncertainty frame), (ii) consequences of a changing climate for national security (national security frame), (iii) consequences for certain animal species (polar bear frame), (iv) financial consequences of climate change (money frame), (v) the responsibility of rich countries to protect poor countries from the impacts of climate change (justice and equity frame) and (vi) the catastrophe that will take place as a result of climate change (catastrophe frame).
The journalistic norm of balance, fairness or objectivity appears to cause controversy when it comes to climate reporting. When translating a scientific narrative for the greater public, balanced covering, it seems, is no guarantee for accurate coverage. Even those journalists who have had a scientific education generally do not have the time or knowledge to check the validity of results. Concerning the climate change issue this often leads to informational bias; despite broad scientific consensus, balanced reporting has permitted a small group of global warming skeptics to have their views amplified (Dunwoody and Peters, 1992; Gelbspan, 1998; Boykoff, 2004). However, research into the coverage of the latest IPCC report shows a shift towards an increasingly serious reflection of the existing scientific consensus (Hulme, 2009b, p.127).
Page | 19 climate change. Without an effective global civil society the whole system of decision making and representation comes to a stalemate (Castells, 2008, p.80).
Even though the climate issue is a complex and global phenomenon, concerning more or less all spheres of life, climate reporting is endowed with the same media routines as news in general (Berglez, 2011, pp. 451-452). When it comes to climate change, dramatic events such as disasters or protests are most likely to be reported. Quality newspapers usually give more detailed information on climate change than other media outlets (Sparks, 1992, pp.38-39). Issues that can be rendered in a binary opposition and that are culturally or geographically ‘close to home’ are most likely to receive attention from the news media (Cottle, 2009a, p. 75). It seems however that the media rarely connect single events to the bigger issue of climate change (Cottle, 2009b, p.89). Several studies suggest there is a development of national domestication of foreign or global news information (e.g.; Berglez, 2008; Biltereyest, 2001). A study by Berglez, Höijer and Olausson into nationalization of the climate issue in Swedish news media confirms, as they say “without a doubt”, the hegemonic presence of the national outlook in the coverage of climate change (Berglez, Höijer and Olausson, 2009, p.218). Hence, despite the technological possibilities, the national ‘gatekeeper’ role is still exercised by national media outlets (Volkmer, 2003, p.15).
Even though climate change is said to be predominantly caused by western developed nations, evidence shows its worst effects will be experienced by the poorest populations in the world (IPCC, 2007). The people of Bolivia and Venezuela, being amongst the poorest countries in Latin America, are expected to be much more vulnerable to the threat of climate change than the Dutch and Belgium people, living in two of the richest countries in the world (IMF, 2011). Despite this, coverage of climate change in non-industrialized countries, though increasing, is lacking both in quantity as well as in
Figure 3: “Despite broad scientific consensus balanced covering permitted a small group of skeptics to have their
Page | 20 quality. Reporters lack the resources, skills and access to information needed for locally relevant reporting. This makes it even more difficult to incorporate climate change as a global issue in people’s everyday lives (Shanahan, 2009, pp. 153-154). Research from banking giant HSBC (2007) shows a difference in public attitudes towards global climate change in developing and developed countries. HSBC asked 9000 people in Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, India, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States about their concerns, confidence, commitment and optimism toward the climate change issue. “Most striking”, as the rapport states, “is the contrast between
developed and developing countries (p.2)”. People in developing countries show the most concern,
commitment and optimism towards climate change, while people in developed countries show comparatively high amounts of indifference, reluctance, and fatalism.
The fact that Bolivia and Venezuela were among the five countries that did not sign the Copenhagen Treaty (USCAN, 2009) (see also subchapter 1.2), with Bolivian president Evo Morales referring to a ‘climate holocaust’ as a result of global warming (Vidal, 2009), makes these countries well suited for a cross-cultural comparison, since journalistic practices are likely to differ between countries whose political cultures and agenda differ (Brossard, Shanahan, McComas, 2004, p. 360).
The Netherlands, Belgium, Bolivia and Venezuela were furthermore chosen for this cross-cultural comparison because of the sparse to almost non-existent research into global climate change in these countries. Most research into coverage of global climate change has been done into American media coverage (Brossard, Shanahan, McComas, 2004, p.361; e.g. Zehr, 2009) and coverage in the UK print press (e.g. Ward, 2009; Hulme, 2009). With some notable exceptions (e.g. Dirikx and Gelder, 2009; Berglez, 2011), little attention has been paid to other countries (Brossard, Shanahan, McComas, 2004). Most sparse are analyses of the press in Latin American countries. As recent as 2009, Cottle mapped the frequency of references to climate change and/or global warming across a sample of the world’s press. Countries from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East were mapped, along with the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Countries from South or Middle America however are absent (Cottle, 2009b, p. 73).
Page | 21 surrounding the 2009 Copenhagen Summit on climate change is an especially fruitful case to study. Despite skepticism from some politicians and political parties2
2 For example, in her election nota the Dutch political party ‘Partij voor de Vrijheid’ calls the current debate on
climate change ‘hysterical’ and climate change in itself ‘not proved’.
Page | 22
3.
M
ETHODOLOGY
This chapter will outline how the data needed to answer the questions outlined in the introduction was collected for this research. In order to gather the data this research employs a qualitative content analysis based on a cross comparative case study. This research design is suited for the purpose of answering the questions outlined earlier, since it mainly deals with the language of news. This chapter will first outline the comparative case study design used and the rationale behind the cross comparison that is chosen (subchapter 3.1.), after which the method of a qualitative content analysis will be presented and the way the language of news in the headings and paragraphs are coded (subchapter 3.2.). The sample gathered and the manner in which it is gathered and analyzed will be outlined in the last subchapter (3.3.).
3.1.
R
ESEARCHD
ESIGNAiming to analyze the “context and processes which illuminate the theoretical issues being studied” (Hartley, 2004, p. 323), this research proceeds from a comparative case study design of both developed and developing countries to analyze the coverage of the 2009 Copenhagen Summit in two contrasting settings.
The case of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference3
3 The conference included the 5th Meeting of the Parties (MOP 5) to the Kyoto Protocol, and the 15th
Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, 2009).
, better known as the Copenhagen Summit, will be studied because media coverage is largely dependent on events (Olausson, 2009, p. 426) and previous research on climate change coverage found that climate change is only prevalent in newspapers during critical moments like international summits (Diriks and Gelder, 2010, p. 735). A random search of articles showed that the Copenhagen Summit has been included in more articles than similar conferences in Cancun (2010) and Durban (2011). Furthermore, Entman (1993) proposes to compare “media narratives of events that could have reported similarly” to “reveal the critical textual
choices” (Entman, 1993, p. 52). The 2009 Copenhagen Summit is an event that could have been
Page | 23 To understand how global journalism emerges in different settings with a different political context and within texts containing different content, the differences and similarities of the relationship between global journalism and thematic frames in countries that have signed the final statement in Copenhagen and developing countries that have not signed the final statement will be examined. Both Belgium and the Netherlands have signed the statement, while Bolivia and Venezuela have not (see chapter 1).
Furthermore, in this research the Netherlands and Belgium were chosen because both countries have a similar media system, which has been classified as the ‘North/Central European or Democratic Corporatist Model’ (Hallin and Mancini, 2004, p.67). It is characterized by: “a historical coexistence of
commercial media and media tied to organized social and political groups, and by a relatively active, but legally limited role of the state (p.11)”. Bolivia and Venezuela both share a media system different from
that of the Netherlands and Belgium - with similarities to media systems in Southern Europe (Hallin and Papathanassopoulos, 2002, p.176), which has been called ‘The Mediterranean or Polarized Pluralist Model’ and is characterized by “integration of the media into party politics, weaker historical
development of commercial media, and a strong role of the state (Hallin and Mancini, 2004, p.11)”.
Among the characteristics that media from Southern Europe and from Latin America have in common are; a low newspaper circulation, a tradition of advocacy reporting, limited developments of journalism as an autonomous profession and the instrumental role of privately-owned media (Hallin and Papathanassopoulos, 2002, p.176).
3.2.
M
ETHOD OF ANALYSISPage | 24 One of the well-known definitions of content analysis stems from as early as 1969. Holsti (1969) defines content analysis as “any technique for making inferences by objectively and systematically
identifying specified characteristics of the messages” (Holsti, 1969, p.14). Being systematic in this sense
means that rules for the analysis are clearly specified in a schedule, with the objective to assign raw material, in this research a newspaper text, into clearly set categories. Objectivity in this definition resides in the transparency of the procedures for assigning the raw material to categories (Bryman, 2008, p.274).
Historically, the method of content analysis was mainly employed in quantitative research designs (Bryman, 2008; Titscher, Meyer, Wodak and Vetter, 2000). The method was commonly understood to refer only “to those methods that concentrate on directly and clearly quantifiable aspects of text content” (Titscher, e.a., 2000, p.55). However, in acknowledgement of later scholars that called quantitative content analysis “superficial” (Mayring, 2000) or stated that a quantitative design neglects the particular form of texts (Kracauer, 1952), this research employs a qualitative content analysis. This is in line with the extended, and much more comprehensive, definition of the method proposed by Kohlbacher (2006); “[content analysis] include[s] all those procedures which operate with categories, but
which seek at least to quantify these categories by means of a frequency survey of classifications”
(Kohlbacher, 2006). A qualitative content analysis is in essential for coding text, with coding being “the
process of transforming raw data into a standardized form” (Babbie, 2001, p. 338).
More specifically, this research uses the method of ‘directed content analysis’ or ‘deductive category application’ as proposed by Hsieh and Shannon (2005) and Mayring (2000), respectively. In contrast to the traditional methods of qualitative content analysis such as ‘ethnographic content analysis’ (Bryman, 2008, p. 276) and ‘conventional content analysis’ (Altheide, 1996), this method does not allow categories to emerge out of the data as is the case in grounded theory. Instead, it works with categories that are formulated a priori and are derived from theory. In this case, it is very important to work with explicit definitions of categories before examining the text. Also, the matter of when exactly a text passage can be coded as belonging to a specific category needs to be precisely defined a priori. These categories and coding definitions are put together in a coding agenda (this coding agenda can be found in Appendix 1).
Page | 25 coded. Since there was only one coder in this research, the summative check of reliability, aiming to check the intercoder reliability (Schilling, 2006, p. 33) will not be conducted.
For the analysis of thematic news frames in the articles gathered, the standard set of generic frames developed by Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) were used. Several studies into news content (e.g. d’Haenens and de Lange, 2001; de Vreese et al., 2001) used these frames and found that their characteristics - as defined in the coding agenda in Appendix 3 - reliably reflect the underlying frames. The frames as gathered by Shanahan (2007) in the coverage of climate change were not used because this research focuses on the analysis of the coverage surrounding the 2009 Copenhagen Summit and it is expected that the frames by Semetko and Valkenburg reflect the frames in this coverage to a greater extent. This expectation is based on the research by Dirikx and Gelder (2000) who found that these characteristics of the frames by Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) reflect the underlying frames in the coverage of Dutch and French press of the annual UN conferences from 2001 until 2007. Therefore these topics or themes are likely to be emphasized in this case of the Copenhagen Summit as well. However, in light of the findings of Shanahan (2007), the frame of scientific uncertainty was added to the coding agenda, as this component will be, unlike the other frames mentioned by him, difficult to code under any of the frames by Semetko and Valkenburg. This emphasis is also added to test the assumption that balanced reporting on the scientific certainty about climate change and its human involvement often causes a small group of climate change skeptics to have their views amplified (see subchapter 2.3). After the formative check of reliability, the ecological consequences frame was added to the coding agenda, as a fair amount of articles refer to the consequences of climate change or the Copenhagen Summit on the environment, animals or nature in general. Since the formative check of reliability also showed that not all paragraphs contain any of the above frames, the possibility to code text as ‘other’ was added as well.
Page | 26 Headings and paragraphs were thus coded as focusing either on:
(i) Conflict: headings and paragraphs were coded as emphasizing this frame when the text
focuses on conflict between individuals, groups or institutions as to how climate change needs to be mitigated or how individuals, groups or institutions can best adapt to a changing climate. A text which focuses on conflict on or surrounding the Copenhagen Summit was also coded under this frame. Clashes between Danish police and protesters on the street were also seen as a headline or paragraphs focusing on conflict.
(ii) Human interest: Paragraphs and headings which bring a human face to climate change or
the Copenhagen Summit were coded under this frame. Furthermore, paragraphs with an emotional angle to the event or issue in the article were included.
(iii) Morality: Paragraphs and headings which focus on a moral duty to mitigate climate
change or focus on religious tenets in relation to climate change or the Copenhagen Summit were coded under this frame.
(iv) Responsibility: Paragraphs and headings which focus on the responsibility that an
individual, group, or institution has for the mitigation or adaption to climate change, or for the events at the Copenhagen Summit were coded under this frame.
(v) Scientific uncertainty: Paragraphs and headings which focus on scientific uncertainty
about the existence of climate change - whether global warming is happening or whether the ice caps are actually melting – or questioning if humankind is contributing to global climate change, arguing that changes in the earth’s climate are normal, were coded under this frame.
(vi) Ecological consequences: Paragraphs and headings focusing on the ecological
consequences climate change will have on earth, particular regions or sceneries, were coded under this frame.
(vii) Others: mostly short paragraphs with only factual information were coded as ‘other’. As
for example this paragraph from De Tijd: “The ‘Industry of the Future Fund’, which Evans
manages, was launched in 2004 in the UK. The asset management company made its name in real estate, but in recent years also in SRI” (DT, 21 December 2009, translated from
Flemish)4
Page | 27 The definitions by Semetko and Valkenburg (2000, pp. 95-96) of the generic frames in news coverage were used to code headings and paragraphs because these characteristics are coherent and easy to recognize in the language of the news (see Appendix 1 for the definition). The definition of the scientific uncertainty frame was derived from Shanahan (2007) and the characteristics for the ecological consequences frame form the formative check of reliability (also in Appendix 1).
Furthermore, each paragraph and each headline was defined as encompassing domestic, foreign or global news (see Appendix 2 for characteristics). This was done because global news can be seen as part of global journalism (as defined by Berglez), and in order to analyze if news is domesticated or globalized. In coding whether a headline or paragraphs emphasize domestic, foreign or global news, remarks can be made as to which type of news is mostly domesticated or globalized, and remarks can also be made concerning the presence of the “absolute version” (Berglez, 2008, p.854) of global journalism – a combination of both global news and a global outlook.
A global outlook is defined as the epistemology of global journalism as it includes journalistic representations of global space, powers or identities (Berglez, 2008, p.848). To code the prevalence of a global outlook - and in doing so the globalization and domestication of news - the representations of power, space and identity are coded as either domestic, foreign or global (characteristics in Appendix 4), since these are proposed by Berglez as outlooks on reality which could be global. The definitions of all representations are derived from Berglez.
Global powers are defined as “economic and political powers with the potential to influence the entire
world” (Berglez, 2008, p.851). Examples are NATO or the World Bank but it could also concern
entities such as Microsoft or the Hollywood film industry.5
The representation of power is coded as:
Space can refer to a geographical location somewhere in the world, but global space can also refer to stories which have an unknown spatial belonging (Berglez, 2008, p.50). Identity could be cultural, political or otherwise referring to being part of a group (p.852). In the fabricated examples given in Appendix 4 the nation state of The Netherlands represents the domestic.
(i) domestic, if power is represented as something local, regional or national within the own
nation state.
Page | 28
(ii) foreign, if media cover power as something transnational, or if global power is defined in
general terms, not focusing on the complex mixture of domestic, foreign and global powers.
(iii) global, if topics and conflicts are explained as a complex mixture of power relations or if the
text focuses on how global powers affect peoples’ lives at the domestic level, and conversely how people’s individual actions or domestic governments transform or challenge the power of global actors.
The representation of space is coded as:
(i) domestic, if the focus is on the own nation state as the geographical location in which issues
and events take place.
(ii) foreign, if the focus is on another nation-state, or a transnational region as the geographical
location in which issues and events take place.
(iii) global, if the text focuses on the relation between different events simultaneously happening in
different parts of the world. The representation of identity is coded as:
(i) domestic, if the national or local identity within the nation state is emphasized.
(ii) foreign, if a national identity or local identity other than that of the own nation state is
emphasized.
(iii) global, if the text represents struggles between different cultures, countries or transnational
regions, or if it emphasizes terms relating to humankind as a whole, or if it unites people with a similar identity across borders.
3.3.
S
AMPLEPage | 29 different media systems and political stances on the topic helps in gaining a better understanding of the emergence and occurrence of global journalism. Quality newspapers were chosen because they give more elaborate information on climate change than other media outlets (Sparks, 1992, pp.38-39). In the Netherlands the quality newspaper ‘NRC Handelsblad’ (NRC) was chosen. It is “the Dutch very
serious equivalent to The New York Times” (Semetko and Valkenburg, 2006, p.97), and the fourth
newspaper in the Netherlands in terms of circulation (Semetko and Valkenburg, 2006, p.97). The Belgian quality newspaper ‘De Tijd’ (DT) is a Flemish language newspaper, which focuses on economic and financial news. In Bolivia, the quality newspaper ‘‘Los Tiempos’’ (LT) was chosen. Similarly to ‘NRC Handelsblad’, it is the fourth newspaper in terms of circulation (Fara, 2006, p. 124). Furthermore, this newspaper was chosen because it has an easily accessible online archive. In Venezuela the newspaper ‘‘El Nacional’’ (EN) was chosen. It is one of Venezuela’s major national newspapers, with an independent stance, and a critical position towards the government (López-Maya, M., 2002, p. 201). In 2009, all these newspapers were printed on broadsheet.
Since the database from the Bolivian newspaper ‘‘Los Tiempos’’ (LT) can only be searched using key words, it would not be possible to read all the newspapers and search for articles relating to climate change and/or the Copenhagen Summit manually. In order to make sure both samples were gathered in the same manner a key word search was conducted to gather the sample.
For ‘NRC Handelsblad’ (NRC) and ‘De Tijd’ (DT) a database search using the academic database of ‘Lexis Nexis’ was conducted using the terms ‘Kopenhagen’ (Copenhagen) OR ‘klimaat’ (climate) between 1/12/2009 and 31/12/2009. This time frame was chosen because it is the period in which the newspapers in all four countries had the most coverage on the issue. For ‘‘El Nacional’’ a database search in Lexis Nexis was conducted as well. The sample was gathered using the words ‘Copenhague’ (Copenhagen) OR ‘clima’ (climate) in the same timeframe.
For ‘‘Los Tiempos’’ the archive on the website6
After this initial search, the articles in the sample were manually selected before coding. All articles in magazines distributed with the newspaper and articles that had no references to climate change or the was searched using the search term ‘Copenhague, clima’ in 2009. This resulted in a sample of articles with the word ‘Copenhague’ or ‘clima’ for 2009 as a whole. The month of December was manually filtered out of this sample.
Page | 30 Copenhagen Summit were filtered out. This happened most frequently in the search with the word ‘climate’ since this could refer to a political/economical/societal climate as well, but also in for example articles about a sportsman born in Copenhagen. Furthermore, small texts that referenced to an article elsewhere in the paper, mostly on page 1 or page 2, were filtered out, as were letters from readers and announcements for television shows.
This resulted in 62 articles in NRC Handelsblad, 72 articles in de Tijd, 22 articles in ‘El Nacional’ and 26 articles in ‘Los Tiempos’.
Page | 31
4.
R
ESULTS
The following results illustrate how the global crisis of climate change is framed in terms of global journalism across newspapers in the countries researched. The data shows the prevalence of different story topics or themes and of global news and a global outlook both in the whole sample and per newspaper and as emphasized in both headings and paragraphs.
The chapter is structured as follows:
Subchapter 4.1 displays the results needed to answer the first and second sub question of this research.
It will firstly elaborate on the question: Which story topics or themes are emphasized in the coverage of
climate change and the 2009 Copenhagen summit? Next, the second sub question: What are the differences and similarities between the Netherlands, Belgium, Bolivia and Venezuela in covering the issue? will be answered. The data will show the prevalence of the frames a priori defined in the coding
agenda for the whole sample and for all newspapers studied. It will thus look at the content of the news coverage and at the differences caused by a difference in national context.
Subchapter 4.2 will display the results needed to answer the third sub question of this research: How does global journalism occur in the newspaper coverage on climate change and the 2009 Copenhagen summit in the Netherlands, Belgium, Venezuela and Bolivia? This data will show the prevalence of
global news, global outlook and what Berglez calls ‘the absolute version of global journalism’ (Berglez, 2008, p.854). It will display data which reveals how often news is domesticated or globalized and which representations within the global outlook are mostly emphasized. The differences and similarities between the four countries under study will also be displayed to further examine context.
Page | 32 Before displaying the results, the difference in sample size between the European countries (134 articles, 1402 paragraphs) and the Latin American countries (48 articles, 462 paragraphs) should be noted. While it could be argued that this difference in sample size is a limitation in this research (see Conclusion), it is also the first result. Both developed countries have significantly more coverage on climate change and the Copenhagen Summit than both developing countries, as could be expected since Shanahan (2009) found that the coverage on climate change in non-industrialized countries – such as Venezuela and Bolivia - is lacking in quantity.
4.1.
C
ONTENT:
S
TORY TOPICS OR THEMES IN COVERAGE ON CLIMATE CHANGE In the following paragraphs the results needed to examine the first and second sub question of this research will be displayed. Sub question one: Which story topics or themes are emphasized in thecoverage of climate change and the 2009 Copenhagen summit? will be firstly elaborated on. After this
the results per country will be displayed in order to answer the second sub question of this research:
What are the differences and similarities between the Netherlands, Belgium, Bolivia and Venezuela in covering the issue?
The story topics or themes that are used when covering global climate change in all four countries studied will be displayed. First, the themes emphasized in all headings will be displayed, since these, as argued earlier, display the main frame in an article. Then, the story topics or themes in all paragraphs will be displayed, after which - since this research compares framing across countries - the differences and similarities in the use of the story topics or themes in the countries under study will be presented.
Table 1. Prevalence of thematic frames in all countries under study.
Thematic frame Headings Paragraphs
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Responsibility frame 54 29,7 820 44,0 Conflict frame 45 24,7 434 23,3 Human interest frame 21 11,5 217 11,6 Economic consequences frame 18 9,9 176 9,4 Ecological consequences frame 14 7,7 74 4,0 Scientific uncertainty frame 8 4,4 56 3,0 Morality frame 3 1,6 34 1,8 Other 19 10,4 54 2,9
