IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v36y2018i5p937-962.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trends and patterns in sustainability-related media coverage: A classification of issue-level attention

Author

Listed:
  • Ralf Barkemeyer
  • Philippe Givry
  • Frank Figge

Abstract

Sustainability has moved from fringe topic to headline news and key policy discourse in its own right. Yet, the sustainability discourse remains fragmented, with a diverse set of challenges receiving vastly different levels of attention. Nevertheless, the vast majority of previous studies have focused on media attention to climate change, whereas other sustainability challenges have received much less attention in the academic literature. In this paper, we explore trends and patterns in media coverage across a set of ten sustainability challenges. In particular, we are interested in the extent to which the recent trends and patterns in coverage that have been well-documented for climate change are reflected by other sustainability challenges. We utilise a sample of 23 broadsheet newspapers from five different countries (Australia, Canada, Germany, UK, US), covering a 17-year period from 2000 to 2016. Using the agenda-setting literature as a starting-point for our enquiry, we then turn to the toolset provided by financial econometrics to develop a basic typology of media attention focusing on the two dimensions information/noise and seasonality/non-seasonality. We find that media coverage on climate change, poverty and HIV/AIDS can mainly be characterized as information, whereas the remaining seven issues included in our study appear noise-driven. Seasonal patterns in coverage appear most pronounced for socioeconomic issues. Media attention to biodiversity and cleaner technologies has been crowded in by increased coverage on climate change. At the same time, we find clear divergences from overall trends and patterns at the level of different countries and individual newspapers.

Suggested Citation

  • Ralf Barkemeyer & Philippe Givry & Frank Figge, 2018. "Trends and patterns in sustainability-related media coverage: A classification of issue-level attention," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(5), pages 937-962, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:36:y:2018:i:5:p:937-962
    DOI: 10.1177/2399654417732337
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2399654417732337
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2399654417732337?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Parzen, Emanuel & Pagano, Marcello, 1979. "An approach to modeling seasonally stationary time series," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1-2), pages 137-153, January.
    2. Clive W. J. Granger, 1979. "Seasonality: Causation, Interpretation, and Implications," NBER Chapters, in: Seasonal Analysis of Economic Time Series, pages 33-56, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Robinson, John, 2004. "Squaring the circle? Some thoughts on the idea of sustainable development," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 369-384, April.
    4. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    5. G. E. P. Box & G. M. Jenkins & J. F. MacGregor, 1974. "Some Recent Advances in Forecasting and Control," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 23(2), pages 158-179, June.
    6. Alexa Spence & Wouter Poortinga & Nick Pidgeon, 2012. "The Psychological Distance of Climate Change," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(6), pages 957-972, June.
    7. De Gooijer, Jan G. & Hyndman, Rob J., 2006. "25 years of time series forecasting," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 443-473.
    8. Travis William Reynolds & Ann Bostrom & Daniel Read & M. Granger Morgan, 2010. "Now What Do People Know About Global Climate Change? Survey Studies of Educated Laypeople," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(10), pages 1520-1538, October.
    9. Hylleberg, S. & Engle, R. F. & Granger, C. W. J. & Yoo, B. S., 1990. "Seasonal integration and cointegration," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1-2), pages 215-238.
    10. Diane Holt & Ralf Barkemeyer, 2012. "Media coverage of sustainable development issues – attention cycles or punctuated equilibrium?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(1), pages 1-17, January.
    11. Arnold Zellner, 1979. "Seasonal Analysis of Economic Time Series," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number zell79-1, December.
    12. Beaulieu, J Joseph & Miron, Jeffrey A, 1992. "A Cross Country Comparison of Seasonal Cycles and Business Cycles," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 102(413), pages 772-788, July.
    13. Maxwell T. Boykoff and J. Timmons Roberts, 2007. "Media Coverage of Climate Change: Current Trends, Strengths, Weaknesses," Human Development Occasional Papers (1992-2007) HDOCPA-2007-03, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    14. Ralf Barkemeyer & Frank Figge & Andreas Hoepner & Diane Holt & Johannes Marcelus Kraak & Pei-Shan Yu, 2017. "Media coverage of climate change: An international comparison," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(6), pages 1029-1054, September.
    15. David A. Pierce, 1979. "Seasonal Adjustment When Both Deterministic and Stochastic Seasonality are Present," NBER Chapters, in: Seasonal Analysis of Economic Time Series, pages 242-280, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Anabela Carvalho & Jacquelin Burgess, 2005. "Cultural Circuits of Climate Change in U.K. Broadsheet Newspapers, 1985–2003," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1457-1469, December.
    17. Forsyth, Tim, 2014. "Public concerns about transboundary haze: a comparison of Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 56043, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Michael Redclift, 2005. "Sustainable development (1987-2005): an oxymoron comes of age," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(4), pages 212-227.
    19. Nelson, Charles R. & Plosser, Charles I., 1982. "Trends and random walks in macroeconmic time series : Some evidence and implications," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 139-162.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Federico Neresini & Paolo Giardullo & Emanuele Buccio & Alberto Cammozzo, 2020. "Exploring socio-technical future scenarios in the media: the energy transition case in Italian daily newspapers," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 147-168, February.
    2. Cotton, Matthew & Barkemeyer, Ralf & Renzi, Barbara Gabriella & Napolitano, Giulio, 2019. "Fracking and metaphor: Analysing newspaper discourse in the USA, Australia and the United Kingdom," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Svatava Janoušková & Tomáš Hák & Vlastimil Nečas & Bedřich Moldan, 2019. "Sustainable Development—A Poorly Communicated Concept by Mass Media. Another Challenge for SDGs?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-20, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Millar, Neal & McLaughlin, Eoin & Börger, Tobias, 2019. "The Circular Economy: Swings and Roundabouts?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 11-19.
    2. Anna Serena Vergori, 2017. "Patterns of seasonality and tourism demand forecasting," Tourism Economics, , vol. 23(5), pages 1011-1027, August.
    3. John D. Levendis, 2018. "Time Series Econometrics," Springer Texts in Business and Economics, Springer, number 978-3-319-98282-3, October.
    4. Petropoulos, Fotios & Apiletti, Daniele & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios & Babai, Mohamed Zied & Barrow, Devon K. & Ben Taieb, Souhaib & Bergmeir, Christoph & Bessa, Ricardo J. & Bijak, Jakub & Boylan, Joh, 2022. "Forecasting: theory and practice," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 705-871.
      • Fotios Petropoulos & Daniele Apiletti & Vassilios Assimakopoulos & Mohamed Zied Babai & Devon K. Barrow & Souhaib Ben Taieb & Christoph Bergmeir & Ricardo J. Bessa & Jakub Bijak & John E. Boylan & Jet, 2020. "Forecasting: theory and practice," Papers 2012.03854, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    5. Emmanuel Kumi & Albert Arhin & Thomas Yeboah, 2014. "Can post-2015 sustainable development goals survive neoliberalism? A critical examination of the sustainable development–neoliberalism nexus in developing countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 539-554, June.
    6. Shaminder Takhar, 2015. "Sustainability, human rights, and sexuality: Making the right connections," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 30(3), pages 256-264, May.
    7. Bardsen, G. & Klovland, J.T., 1990. "Finding The Rigth Nominal Anchor: The Cointegration Of Money, Credit And Nominal Income In Norway," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 350, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    8. Paulo Rodrigues & Denise Osborn, 1999. "Performance of seasonal unit root tests for monthly data," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(8), pages 985-1004.
    9. Hametner, Markus, 2022. "Economics without ecology: How the SDGs fail to align socioeconomic development with environmental sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    10. PHILIP E.T. LEWIS & GARRY A. MacDONALD, 1993. "Testing for Equilibrium in the Australian Wage Equation," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 69(3), pages 295-304, September.
    11. Jari Lyytimäki & Ulla Rosenström, 2008. "Skeletons out of the closet: effectiveness of conceptual frameworks for communicating sustainable development indicators," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(5), pages 301-313.
    12. Suvera Boodhoo & Sanjana Brijball Parumasur, 2017. "Academics' Perceptions of the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) for Sustainable Development," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 9(2), pages 174-188.
    13. Boswijk, H. Peter & Franses, Philip Hans & van Dijk, Dick, 2010. "Cointegration in a historical perspective," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 158(1), pages 156-159, September.
    14. Carlos A. Medel, 2018. "A Comparison Between Direct and Indirect Seasonal Adjustment of the Chilean GDP 1986–2009 with X-12-ARIMA," Journal of Business Cycle Research, Springer;Centre for International Research on Economic Tendency Surveys (CIRET), vol. 14(1), pages 47-87, April.
    15. Joseph Beaulieu, J. & Miron, Jeffrey A., 1993. "Seasonal unit roots in aggregate U.S. data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1-2), pages 305-328.
    16. Baxter, J. L. & Moosa, I. A., 1996. "The consumption function: A basic needs hypothesis," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 85-100, October.
    17. Katharine Legun & Marion Sautier, 2018. "Sustainability programs and deliberative processes: assembling sustainable winegrowing in New Zealand," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(4), pages 837-852, December.
    18. Else Ragni Yttredal & Nathalie Homlong, 2020. "Perception of Sustainable Development in a Local World Heritage Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-19, October.
    19. Uwe Hassler & Marc-Oliver Pohle, 2019. "Forecasting under Long Memory and Nonstationarity," Papers 1910.08202, arXiv.org.
    20. Vastola, Vincenzo & Russo, Angeloantonio & Vurro, Clodia, 2017. "Dealing with Cultural Differences in Environmental Management: Exploring the CEP-CFP Relationship," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 267-275.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:36:y:2018:i:5:p:937-962. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.