The cultural politics of climate change discourse in UK tabloids

Abstract

In the United Kingdom (UK), daily circulation figures for tabloid newspapers are as much as ten times higher than broadsheet sources. Nonetheless, studies of media representations of climate change in the UK to date have focused on broadsheet newspapers. Moreover, readership patterns correlate with socio-economic status; the majority of readers of tabloids are in ‘working class’ demographics. With a growing need to engage wider constituencies in awareness and potential behavioral change, it is important to examine how these influential sources represent climate change for a heretofore understudied segment of citizenry. This paper links political geographies with cultural issues of identity and discourse, through claims and frames on climate change in four daily ‘working class’ tabloid newspapers in UK – The Sun (and News of the World), Daily Mail (and Mail on Sunday), the Daily Express (and Sunday Express), and the Mirror (and Sunday Mirror). Through triangulated Critical Discourse Analysis, investigations of framing and semi-structured interviews, this project examines representations of climate change in these newspapers from 2000 through 2006. Data show that news articles on climate change were predominantly framed through weather events, charismatic megafauna and the movements of political actors and rhetoric, while few stories focused on climate justice and risk. In addition, headlines with tones of fear, misery and doom were most prevalent. These analyses then enable discussions of how these representations may influence ongoing climate science and governance interactions as well as political geographies, and (re)shape the contemporary cultural politics of climate change discourse.