Abstract

The research examines the news on climate change in different media, through the analysis of agenda setting and framing, in the context of a construction of media discourse. The role of the media has been relevant in the symbolic struggle of climate change images. The polarized public opinion on climate change in the USA, which has led the Trump government to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, as well as the revocation of environmental policies, is analyzed by the coverage that media with Republican and Democratic political tendencies gave to the climate crisis during the 12 days of the 2019 Climate Summit. The 189 news articles broadcast by Fox News, Breitbart, CNN, and the New York Times were identified, analyzed, and contrasted. The results reveal that media with a Republican political tendency were the only ones that broadcast denial news of climate change. Breitbart reported the largest number of news items throughout the sample, mostly denialists, at 71%, using tactics related to the spectacularization of the climate phenomenon, ad hominem attacks on ecologists and politicians, the connection between environmental initiatives and “eco-fascism” or the “radical left”, as well as use of the half-truth fallacy and questionable sources associated with the fossil fuel industry. Fox News practically did not address the issue during the summit. The Democratic political tendency media did not report any kind of denial news; their information and opinions communicated environmental initiatives and climate change consequences.

Highlights

  • The climate emergency is one of the great challenges of the 21st century; the IPCCs (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports warn that human activities have already caused global warming of approximately 1.0 ◦ C above pre-industrial levels, and that this will last for centuries to millennia and will continue to cause further long-term changes in the climate system

  • The analysis of the news broadcast during the 25th United Nations Conference reveals of hyperlinks to other news

  • The results reveal that the deliberate omission makes it difficult for the public to construct a broad framework, considering that both the international event and the exit of the United States from the agreement are key elements to understand the environmental crisis in a global and national context, and because it detracts from the climate skepticism professed by the current government

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Summary

Introduction

The climate emergency is one of the great challenges of the 21st century; the IPCCs (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports warn that human activities have already caused global warming of approximately 1.0 ◦ C above pre-industrial levels, and that this will last for centuries to millennia and will continue to cause further long-term changes in the climate system. In June 2017, US President Donald Trump, as part of his electoral promise, announced the withdrawal of the Paris Agreement, stating that he was committed to the economic interests of the nation and the agreement, in contrast, Sustainability 2021, 13, 3926. The United States is the second largest emitter of CO2 in the world, surpassed only by China and followed by the European Union, India, Russia, and Japan [4]. For this reason, his decision to withdraw from the Agreement has generated a number of national and international tensions, as well as uncertainty about the implementation of the proposed reductions

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