The focus of the article is the extent to which the issue of climate change was covered in newspapers worldwide in 2009 and, therefore, its relative importance as a global news story. Unfortunately, the analysis is not very promising:
“Journalists worldwide published more than 32,400 articles on climate change in last year, yet the coverage was not enough to warrant a spot on a map showing major news events of 2009.”In other words, in spite of the Copenhagen summit in December and the growing acceptance of the science behind climate change, the environment still does not rank as one of our society’s highest priorities (at least, in terms of news coverage):
“Tiger Woods' adultery, the "Balloon Boy," even the White House party crashers all earned a spot; climate change – and the environment in general – didn't make the cut.”The author looks for the positive in the story, emphasizing the increase in total climate change articles over 2008’s number, but the bottom line is still somewhat depressing:
“"It's hard to get exciting news about global warming," said Robert Brulle, a sociologist at Drexel University who studies the state of news coverage. "You end up with this real problematic coverage. The coverage is not the science, it's these political-economic-social angles." Brulle has been tracking national television coverage of climate. His numbers are more dismal than Boycoff's newspaper trends: In 2008 he found 73 nightly TV news reports on climate; 2009 had 58.”Take care
David
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders in a Global Environment (2e)
© Sage Publications, 2011
http://www.sagepub.com/strategiccsr2e/
Instructor Teaching Site: http://www.sagepub.com/strategiccsr/
The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: http://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/
2009 climate coverage: A trove of stories ... lost in a sea of noise?
By Douglas Fischer
Daily Climate editor
11 January, 2010
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2010/01/2009-offers-a-trove-of-climate-coverage
