Are Generations Really Divided by Climate? Preference for Conflict in Fridays for Future Media Coverage

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the role of the media in the representation of youth climate action, specifically the media tendency to construct the age-related aspects of climate change through a conflictual framing. A qualitative analysis of 347 articles on the Fridays for Future (FFF) activities produced by a diverse sample of the mainstream online Czech media reveals how media are generally absorbed by the generational perspective and conflict when covering the issue, but in two different ways reflecting the position towards the FFF. Conflictual framing is either based on a negative representation of the FFF movement itself, or, in the dominant case when the media are supportive of the movement, is created through an emphasis on the theme of intergenerational justice. We follow the theoretical approach of peace journalism calling for a substantial change in the media coverage of global crises and argue that, given the already polarised public opinion in Europe (and in the Czech Republic specifically), the media tendency to support yet another polarising perspective, based on age-differences this time, does not contribute to the possible solution of the problem.