Examining the framing patterns of environmental issues: Episodic and thematic analysis of Pakistani and British news stories

Abstract

Practice and applicability of environmental journalism accelerate changes in environmental policy, foster environmental awareness amongst the public and encourage environmentalism in the society. Reporting news in episodic instead of thematic manner is imperative in altering the public narrative regarding environment as well as providing assistance for significant decision making, to concerned stakeholders for better policy formation. The comparative design of this study utilized quantitative content analysis to examines framing approach of Pakistani and British environmental news stories. Using simple random sampling technique total (n=1139) environmental news stories analysed from all four newspapers since 2007 to 2016-time period. The findings indicate the contrast among four newspapers of two countries (Dawn & Nation) from Pakistani print media however (Guardian & Telegraph) from Great Britain identify the divergent framing characteristics of Pakistani and British environmental news stories with thematic and episodic preferences. Guardian and Telegraph framed thematic news stories focusing on structural attributions while Dawn and Nation news stories evoke individualistic attributions with episodic frames. In spite of media’s regular journalistic practice of featuring episodic news stories still communicators can shift their professional approach by learning the construction of persuasive thematic environmental news stories for bigger social change.