A critique of climate change coverage in both global and regional news media

The news media are central to mainstreaming climate change due to their ability to
inform, educate and interpret everyday reality. As primary sources of public
information and as agents of representation, the media play a pivotal role in the
dissemination of climate change information. The failure by both the global and
regional news media to disseminate climate change effectively has a negative impact
on public perceptions, action and reaction to the climate change problem.
This paper sought to: a) examine and analyse the frequency and patterns of climate
change coverage in the both the global and regional news media, b) examine the
nature and trend of climate change coverage in both the global and regional news
media and c) compare and contrast the news management techniques and news
sourcing patterns by both the global and regional news media.
The study used the mixed-methods approach as the chosen methodology.
Quantitative data was gathered by way of Twitter, Facebook and website analytics.
Qualitative data was gathered through trend analysis and qualitative content
analysis.
The study revealed that the coverage of climate change in the media is very poor as
the subject rarely attracted the attention of journalists. Climate change only received
attention from the media during a disaster and major events such as super typhoons
and floods. The media sourcing patterns were found to be faulty, as more stories had
politicians cited as sources and not the scientific experts. Climate change issues
were buried way inside the news bulletins and newspapers.