Abstract
Emotionalization is increasingly used in the daily news. However, communication scholars have only just begun to explore how journalists use emotionalization in coverage of scientific and environmental topics. This study contributes to filling this research gap by investigating emotionalization in reporting on honey bee colony losses. The aim of the study is to analyze the amount of emotionalization that took place, as well as to observe changes over time. Emotionalization is assessed in two ways; by analyzing to what extent journalists (1) <em>explicitly mentioned</em> discrete emotions in news stories (joy, hope, fear, anger, etc.) and/or (2) used <em>rhetorical devices</em> to evoke emotions (affective vocabulary, metaphors, colloquial language, superlatives, etc.). Results from a quantitative content analysis of four Austrian newspapers in 2010/2011, 2013/2014, and 2017/2018 show that the coverage is highly emotionalized across all three time periods studied. Emotionalization occurs far more often by using rhetorical devices than by explicitly mentioning positive or negative emotions. Interestingly, the incorporation of emotional elements and scientific expertise in the news items do not exclude one another. Hence, there seems to be no strict dichotomy between rational/objective and emotional reporting.
Highlights
Journalism has the potential to contribute to a wellinformed and proactive citizenry by reporting on environmental issues
The case of the colony collapse disorder (CCD) is especially interesting as it is less researched than other environmental topics that call for action such as climate change (Cho, 2010; Smith & Saunders, 2016; Suryanarayanan & Kleinman, 2012)
Regardless of whether honey bee colony losses were reported as a main topic or as a subtopic—the share of articles containing emotionalization is very similar for both types of reporting
Summary
Journalism has the potential to contribute to a wellinformed and proactive citizenry by reporting on environmental issues. Communication scholars are interested in investigating what kind of media coverage is best-suited for presenting information in a comprehensible way and for fostering engagement. It is important to know the precise details on how media coverage on environmental issues is presented. Surprisingly little is known so far in this regard. This is where our study comes in. We analyze emotionalization in media reporting on environmental issues by using the case of the colony collapse disorder (CCD). The case of the CCD is especially interesting as it is less researched than other environmental topics that call for action such as climate change (Cho, 2010; Smith & Saunders, 2016; Suryanarayanan & Kleinman, 2012)
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