Abstract
The reasons for the emergence of environmental issues in public debate have been widely studied, while the reasons for the disappearance of environmental issues from the public agenda are researched to a far lesser extent. This article presents how the newspaper coverage of climate change has evolved in Finland. The study is based on long-term (1990–2020) data from the leading national-level newspaper. The climate coverage has been characterized by an increasing overall trend and remarkable fluctuations in the intensity of debate. The monthly coverage of climate change had four distinctive peak periods. The drops from peak levels are explained by several factors, such as the end of a specific news event or policy process (e.g., international climate policy meetings), lack of weather anomalies (e.g., normal winter weather and snow coverage), silence of key influencers (policy-makers, business elite), and news competition together with reporting fatigue following abundant climate coverage. The first months of the intense phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 showed a deep, but not unprecedented drop in climate coverage from the preceding peak level. The persistence of anthropogenic climate change, gradual mainstreaming of climate concerns across different societal sectors, and recent policy debates around so-called green or sustainable recovery suggest that climate coverage is not likely to be muted in the near future.
Highlights
“Can coronavirus bring boomers and zoomers together on climate?” This question was posed by the online magazine Grist in April 2020, during the execution of exceptional policy measures imposed by governments around the world as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic [1]
The persistence of anthropogenic climate change, gradual mainstreaming of climate concerns across different societal sectors, and recent policy debates around so-called green or sustainable recovery suggest that climate coverage is not likely to be muted in the near future
The acute crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and more gradual erosion of socio-ecological systemic resilience caused by challenges such as climate change or biodiversity loss must be managed through balanced orchestration of multiple actors, as noted by many science-based advisory bodies [2,3]
Summary
“Can coronavirus bring boomers and zoomers together on climate?” This question was posed by the online magazine Grist in April 2020, during the execution of exceptional policy measures imposed by governments around the world as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic [1]. The acute crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and more gradual erosion of socio-ecological systemic resilience caused by challenges such as climate change or biodiversity loss must be managed through balanced orchestration of multiple actors, as noted by many science-based advisory bodies [2,3]. Such orchestration is challenging because of the different uncertainties, values, and interests involved. We study the long-term evolution of media coverage of climate change and the impacts of examples of short-term factors—including the COVID-19 pandemic—on news reporting. The visibility of such controversies has been relatively low in the mainstream media of Nordic countries such as Finland, characterized by a democratic-corporatist communication system [14,15]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
