Abstract
The paper aims to trace back the environmental discourse on water supply and the risk of scarcity and to learn about media dealing with information about natural resources we cannot live without. Therefore, it presents a theoretical concept to identify the degree of problematization of resource related issues in the media and works out regularities of environmental discourses.
 
 Design: The presented data of a quantitative as well as qualitative media content analysis (Nvivo) of newspaper articles (n = 1745) published in Central Europe (Italy, Slovenia, Austria and Germany) focuses on the arguments and frames used in relation to the issue of water supply. Based on a theoretical model of public debates and discourses on CSR, sustainability and environmental issues (Bourdieu, 1991; May et al., 2007; Weder, 2012a, 2012b; Castello et al., 2013; Weder, 2015a), the underlying assumption is that only a high degree of problematization (variety and counter activeness of arguments) in the media represents a public discourse. 
 
 Findings: The results show that the main water supply related sub issues debated in the media are water privatization and management. Media discourses about water as a natural resource are dominated by economic frames, in particular arguments of corporations (particularly in Italy) and political actors (particularly in Austria). Accordingly, the lack of controversy and counterarguments as well as the homogeneity of frames show that the issue of water allocation and the risk of scarcity is not problematized in the media. 
 
 Implications: Working with the theoretical assumption of a high degree of problematization as condition for public discourses, the qualitative evaluation shows a non-existence of an environmental discourse on resources and sustainable ways of water allocation and usage. This puts the phenomenon of politicization, when environmental discourses are drawn to and used by another (i.e. the political) field, up for discussion with an “abuse” of environmental claims for specific political and economic interests as worst-case scenario.
Highlights
The aim of the increasing scientific debate dealing with the phenomena of environmental communication is to explore the relationship between sustainability as principle, responsible corporative and individual action and communication
This paper aims to trace back the environmental discourse on water supply and the risk of scarcity and to learn about media dealing – or not dealing – with information about natural resources we cannot live without and about reasons for the ‘invisibility’ of the issue in Central Europe
The results of the media content analysis are presented with particular attention to events, topics and frames and the degree of problematization
Summary
The aim of the increasing scientific debate dealing with the phenomena of environmental communication is to explore the relationship between sustainability as principle, responsible corporative and individual action and communication. That in today’s information society, the terms ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable’ substitute the term ‘environmental’ and are communicated in heterogeneous contexts and increasingly used as ‘word pods’ or master frames for individual and corporate activities. Politicians communicate their sustainability strategies, small and medium-sized businesses proclaim their sustainable way to operate and responsibility towards their stakeholder, and global players frame themselves as ‘green’, social, and environment as well as future oriented ‘in a sustainable way’. The here presented study seeks to identify a public discourse on a sustainability related issue, the issue of water supply and the risk of scarcity. The ‘invisibility’ of the water issue could have several reasons: a non-existent general sustainability discourse, lack of public awareness and/or knowledge, economic interests behind it or rather an abnegation of arguments for sustainable solutions in water allocation by the political and economic system (Rahaman et al, 2007; Hrasky, 2012)
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