Claims, Frames, and Blame

Bradley C Freeman

doi:10.1177/2158244016675199

Abstract

As economies in Southeast Asia develop, there is renewed interest in the impact such growth has on nature. This study seeks to investigate how environmental issues have been covered in the English-language press of the region. Are some countries providing greater print news coverage versus others? Are there detectable patterns or noticeable biases in the coverage? What sources are relied upon in the print media stories? And what frames do we see in the coverage? This study identified general coverage patterns of the environment over a 10-year period (2002-2012), in several of the region’s English-language newspapers. News stories were analyzed to discern the nature of the coverage, coding for several variables as indicated by previous literature. Results indicate that use of the term climate change became preferred over that of global warming. In addition, coverage increased greatly starting in 2006. Government officials were most often the sources quoted within stories (Claims). Articles contained more “judgments” about the issue than “solutions” (Frames). Finally, though most articles eschewed mentioning a specific actor as causing climate change, “man” was implicated in a number of stories more often than simply “nature” (Blame).

Highlights

IntroductionSoutheast Asia is a region full of rapidly developing economies with increasing geo-political relevance
Environmentalism and coverage of the environment and its associated movements have reached a certain level of maturity in the United States and Europe
One concern when economies grow substantially is the potential for compendium growth of negative externalities—that is to say, does the economic growth come at the expense of the environment? When it comes to issues of the environment in the region, we see that “environmentalism in its various manifestations in Southeast Asia has taken on the role of a social movement” (Hirsch & Warren, 1998, p. 2), we find that “[e] nvironmental advocacy is growing but is still new and largely unappreciated by government” (Boyle, 1998, p. 95)

Summary

Introduction

Southeast Asia is a region full of rapidly developing economies with increasing geo-political relevance. When it comes to issues of the environment in the region, we see that “environmentalism in its various manifestations in Southeast Asia has taken on the role of a social movement” In conducting this investigation, this study joins a growing call to explore more closely the issues of environmentalism in developing countries (Takahashi, 2011) as well as to move beyond the national level with a transnational, cross-cultural comparison (Brossard, Shanahan, & McComas, 2004)—in this case by examining print media treatment of the subject among Asean member states

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion