Climate Justice and Other News Frames in the Coverage of Climate Change in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT Media and communication scholars have studied climate change from many perspectives. However, much of the scholarship has focused on Western countries, with limited attention paid to African countries. This study expands climate change communication research by examining framing devices used by prominent newspapers in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. A content analysis of 342 newspaper articles published in Daily Nation (Kenya), Punch (Nigeria) and The Sunday Times (South Africa) in 2021 reveals prominence in framing of climate change as threat to human lives and livelihood, human causes of climate change, a need for climate justice, and remedies in the form of adaptation across the three countries. Differences across the three countries are also noted. For example, even though all three newspapers highlighted climate justice in their coverage, proportionally, this was higher in the Sunday Times than in Daily Nation and Punch. Other differences and implications are also discussed.