Abstract
Images are ubiquitous in everyday life. They are a key part of the communication process, shaping peoples’ attitudes and policy preferences on climate change. Images which have come to dominate visual portrayals of climate change (and conversely, those that are marginalised or excluded) influence how we interact with climate change in our everyday lives. This paper presents the first in-depth, cross-cultural and longitudinal study of climate change visual discourse. It examines over a thousand images associated with articles about climate change in UK and US newspapers between 2001 and 2009, a pivotal decade for climate change engagement. Content, frame and iconographic analyses reveal a remarkably consistent visual discourse in the UK and US newspapers. The longitudinal analysis shows how the visual representation of climate changed mid-decade. Before 2005, a distancing frame was common. Imagery of polar landscapes acted as a visual synecdoche for distant climate risk. After 2005, there was a rapid increase in visual coverage, an increase in use of the contested visual frame, alongside an increase in climate cartoons, protest imagery and visual synecdoches. These synecdoches began to be subverted and parodied, particularly in the right-leaning press. These results illustrate the rise of climate change scepticism during the mid-2000s. This study has implications for public engagement with climate change. It shows that the contested and distancing visual frames are deeply and historically embedded in the meaning-making of climate change. Additionally, it showcases the importance of visual synecdoches, used by newspapers in particular circumstances to engage particular audiences. Knowing and understanding visual use is imperative to enable an evidence-based approach to climate engagement endeavours.
Highlights
The IPCC argues that sustainable consumption can be ‘viewed in the broader context of lifestyles and everyday life’ (IPCC 2014: 308)
The results section examines each of the research questions in turn. 3.1 Visual coverage over time Visual coverage gradually increased during the period 2001–2004
Image quantity was only affected by socio-political events towards the latter end of the decade: earlier in the decade, the annual COPs and the IPCC TAR (2001) did not affect the quantity of visual images in newspapers
Summary
The IPCC argues that sustainable consumption can be ‘viewed in the broader context of lifestyles and everyday life’ (IPCC 2014: 308). Media coverage shapes how people talk, think about and act on everyday practices of sustainability (Smith 2017). It acts as a central agent for raising awareness and disseminating information, and offers a forum through which climate governance can be discussed and legitimised (Schmidt et al 2013). This is a negotiated process: it is not that audiences consume media passively, but that media outlets offer an array of interpretative packages which audiences use in order to conceptualise an issue (Gamson and Modigliani 1989). Media coverage of climate change does not determine how people engage with the issue, but it does shape the possibilities for engagement (Carvalho and Burgess 2005)
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