IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/climat/v163y2020i1d10.1007_s10584-019-02504-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

More than meets the eye: a longitudinal analysis of climate change imagery in the print media

Author

Listed:
  • Saffron O’Neill

    (University of Exeter)

Abstract

Images are ubiquitous in everyday life. They are a key part of the communication process, shaping peoples’ attitudes and policy preferences on climate change. Images which have come to dominate visual portrayals of climate change (and conversely, those that are marginalised or excluded) influence how we interact with climate change in our everyday lives. This paper presents the first in-depth, cross-cultural and longitudinal study of climate change visual discourse. It examines over a thousand images associated with articles about climate change in UK and US newspapers between 2001 and 2009, a pivotal decade for climate change engagement. Content, frame and iconographic analyses reveal a remarkably consistent visual discourse in the UK and US newspapers. The longitudinal analysis shows how the visual representation of climate changed mid-decade. Before 2005, a distancing frame was common. Imagery of polar landscapes acted as a visual synecdoche for distant climate risk. After 2005, there was a rapid increase in visual coverage, an increase in use of the contested visual frame, alongside an increase in climate cartoons, protest imagery and visual synecdoches. These synecdoches began to be subverted and parodied, particularly in the right-leaning press. These results illustrate the rise of climate change scepticism during the mid-2000s. This study has implications for public engagement with climate change. It shows that the contested and distancing visual frames are deeply and historically embedded in the meaning-making of climate change. Additionally, it showcases the importance of visual synecdoches, used by newspapers in particular circumstances to engage particular audiences. Knowing and understanding visual use is imperative to enable an evidence-based approach to climate engagement endeavours.

Suggested Citation

  • Saffron O’Neill, 2020. "More than meets the eye: a longitudinal analysis of climate change imagery in the print media," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 9-26, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:163:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s10584-019-02504-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-019-02504-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10584-019-02504-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10584-019-02504-8?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. N. W. Smith & H. Joffe, 2009. "Climate change in the British press: the role of the visual," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(5), pages 647-663, July.
    2. Shane P Singh & Meili Swanson, 2017. "How issue frames shape beliefs about the importance of climate change policy across ideological and partisan groups," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-14, July.
    3. Ines Lörcher & Irene Neverla, 2015. "The Dynamics of Issue Attention in Online Communication on Climate Change," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(1), pages 17-33.
    4. Jason T. Carmichael & Robert J. Brulle & Joanna K. Huxster, 2017. "The great divide: understanding the role of media and other drivers of the partisan divide in public concern over climate change in the USA, 2001–2014," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 141(4), pages 599-612, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. David Klenert & Franziska Funke & Linus Mattauch & Brian O’Callaghan, 2020. "Five Lessons from COVID-19 for Advancing Climate Change Mitigation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(4), pages 751-778, August.
    2. Clarke, Christopher E. & Evensen, Darrick T.N., 2023. "Attention to news media coverage of unconventional oil/gas development impacts: Exploring psychological antecedents and effects on issue support," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    3. Hendrik Meyer & Amelia Katelin Peach & Lars Guenther & Hadas Emma Kedar & Michael Brüggemann, 2023. "Between Calls for Action and Narratives of Denial: Climate Change Attention Structures on Twitter," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(1), pages 278-292.
    4. Hilary Boudet & Chad Zanocco & Greg Stelmach & Mahmood Muttaqee & June Flora, 2021. "Public preferences for five electricity grid decarbonization policies in California," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(5), pages 510-528, September.
    5. Heinz, Nicolai & Koessler, Ann-Kathrin, 2021. "Other-regarding preferences and pro-environmental behaviour: An interdisciplinary review of experimental studies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    6. Zijian Harrison Gong & Haoran Chu, 2022. "Seeing Risks or Solutions: Psychological Distance and Ecological Worldview Moderated the Effect of Disgust Images on Attention to Environmental Messages," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, June.
    7. Richard D. Besel & Krista Burke & Vana Christos, 2017. "A life history approach to perceptions of global climate change risk: young adults’ experiences about impacts, causes, and solutions," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 61-75, January.
    8. A. E. Opperhuizen & K. Schouten, 2021. "Dynamics and tipping point of issue attention in newspapers: quantitative and qualitative content analysis at sentence level in a longitudinal study using supervised machine learning and big data," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 19-37, February.
    9. Ann Garth & Timmons Roberts, 2022. "Economic framing dominates climate policy reporting: a fifty-state analysis," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 172(3), pages 1-21, June.
    10. Xu, Yilan & Huang, Yi, 2022. "Does climate change news inform flood insurance take?," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322178, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. J. L. Arroyo-Barrigüete & C. Bellón Núñez-Mera & J. Labrador & V. L. Nicolas, 2023. "Ideology, scientific literacy, and climate change: the case of Spain," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 13(2), pages 350-356, June.
    12. Zakaria Babutsidze & Ann-Kathrin Blankenberg & Andreas Chai, 2023. "The effect of traditional media consumption and internet use on environmental attitudes in Europe," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 309-340, April.
    13. Arjan Wardekker & Susanne Lorenz, 2019. "The visual framing of climate change impacts and adaptation in the IPCC assessment reports," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 273-292, September.
    14. Kashner, Daniel & Stalinski, Mateusz, 2024. "Preempting polarization: An experiment on opinion formation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    15. Debra Javeline & Tracy Kijewski-Correa & Angela Chesler, 2019. "Does it matter if you “believe” in climate change? Not for coastal home vulnerability," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 155(4), pages 511-532, August.
    16. Rima Jamil Malkawi & Shehdeh Ismail Fareh & Ghaleb Rabab’ah, 2024. "Framing the shooting of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in English and Arabic news headlines: a critical discourse study," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
    17. Denise Voci, 2022. "Logos, Ethos, Pathos, Sustainabilitos? About the Role of Media Companies in Reaching Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-17, February.
    18. Müller, Henrik & Schmidt, Tobias & Rieger, Jonas & Hornig, Nico & Hufnagel, Lena Marie, 2023. "The inflation attention cycle: Updating the Inflation Perception Indicator (IPI) up to February 2023. A research note," DoCMA Working Papers 13, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund Center for Data-based Media Analysis (DoCMA).
    19. Carl Latkin & Lauren Dayton & Catelyn Coyle & Grace Yi & Da-In Lee & Abigail Winiker, 2021. "The Relationship between Social Norms, Avoidance, Future Orientation, and Willingness to Engage in Climate Change Advocacy Communications," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-14, December.
    20. Giuseppe Crapa & Maria Elena Latino & Paolo Roma, 2024. "The performance of green communication across social media: Evidence from large‐scale retail industry in Italy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 493-513, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:spr:climat:v:163:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s10584-019-02504-8. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.