The Representation of Climate Change Politics in the Dutch Newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’ Between 2008 and May 2018
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The representation of climate change politics in the Dutch newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’ between 2008 and May 2018 Name: Laura Hilhorst Student number: 10995951 Study: Bachelor Future Planet Studies; major Human Geography Study year: 2017/2018 Course: Bachelor Thesis Project Project: Representation of climate change politics in ‘De Volkskrant’ Supervisor: Patrick Weir (second reader: Aslan Zorlu) Date: June 18, 2018 Word count: 13,560 E-mail: [email protected] Abstract In this research the representation of climate change politics in the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant has been studied. Through scientific journalism, news media serve as a place where public opinion on climate change is formed, which then influences the political agenda regarding climate change. A qualitative content analysis has been carried out to to find out if there is a pattern of climate change representations in the newspaper between January 2008 and May 2018. There is focused on predominant climate change politics representations, human actors, journalistic norms, and climate change representations. Change politics was predominantly represented as international CO2 mitigation strategies, giving preference to mitigation (undoing the effects) of rather than adaptation to climate change (providing assistance). Most predominant actors included (foreign) politics (primarily presidents and ministers), intergovernmental organizations (EU and UN), and environmental organizations (Greenpeace and Milieudefensie). Journalists reporting climate change politics in De Volkskrant mainly used the norm ‘novelty’; journalists prefer new stories over stories that have already been reported. Last, climate change was predominantly represented as a problem in general, journalists and politicians often used wording like ‘climate crisis’ and ‘saving the climate’. However, media representations of climate change also showed to be subject to the uncertainties and ontology of science itself. 2 Table of contents Chapter 1. Introduction 4 1.1 Introduction 4 1.2 Problem statement 5 Chapter 2. Theoretical Framework 6 2.1 (Popular) geopolitics of climate change 6 2.2 Journalistic norms 8 Chapter 3. Research design 10 3.1 Methodology 10 3.2 Operationalization 10 Conceptual framework 12 3.3 Research method 13 Chapter 4. Results 15 4.1 General results 15 4.2 Predominant representations 17 4.2.1 Focus 17 4.2.2 Type 22 4.2.3 Scale 22 4.3 Predominant actors 23 4.3.1 Politicians 23 4.3.2 Intergovernmental organizations 25 4.3.3 Environmental organizations 27 4.4 Predominant journalist norms 28 4.5 Predominant climate change representation 31 Chapter 5. Conclusion 34 5.1 Conclusion 34 5.2 Discussion & recommendations 36 Chapter 6. References 38 Chapter 7. Appendix 44 3 Chapter 1. Introduction 1.1 Introduction Since around 1750, human activities including animal agriculture and fossil fuel use have led to increased greenhouse gas emissions (IPOC, 2017). Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane have the ability to retain much heat, and therefore increasing emissions cause average temperatures on Earth to rise (Schmidt et al., 2013). Anthropogenic climate change is a serious problem, as it alters climate conditions around the world, which then negatively affects the social world (Schmidt et al., 2013). The Netherlands is vulnerable to climate change for the reason that a quarter of the country lies below sea level and sixty percent of its population lives in this area (Kirton et al., 2013). The global mean sea level in 2100 is expected to be 0.5 to 1.4 meters higher compared to 1990 (Rahmstorf, 2007). It is therefore commonly agreed that effective adaptation strategies are crucial for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, so that the effects of climate change are mitigated (IPCC, 2015). As neither climate change nor its consequences are limited to certain countries, but rather take place on a global scale, international cooperation is needed to address the issue (IPCC, 2015). This is an example of ‘geopolitics’, which refers to the spatial dynamics of politics (Dalby, 2013). It concerns power relations, political dominance, and international relations (Dalby, 2013). The context in which interaction between politics and the environment has taken place has experienced major changes (Dalby, 2013). Because human activity is the main cause of current climate change, we need to recognize that humanity is part of nature, and therefore entangled with the environment and its changes (Dalby, 2013). It is this human-nature inseparability which causes Latour (2014) to state that the objectivity of media reporting climate change has been completely undermined by “the presence of humans in the phenomena to be described – and in the politics of tackling them” (p. 2). Public awareness of climate change has primarily been created through mass media’s extensive coverage of climate change and related issues since the late 1980s (Weingart, Engels, & Pansegrau, 2000). News media - in particular newspapers - are seen as “central agents for raising awareness and disseminating information” (Schmidt et al., 2013, p. 1233). News media in this way serve as a place where public opinion on climate change is formed, which in turn influences political debate on the matter (Schmidt et al., 2013). Thus, politics on climate change also takes place outside of academic and policymaking discourse, also known as ‘popular geopolitics’ (Dittmer & Gray, 2010). News media play an important role in communicating climate change to the public, as it can downplay or exaggerate the perceived severity of the problem (Weingart et al., 2000). 4 Although more and more scholars are focusing on popular media’s representations of climate change, most literature is dedicated to a comparative analysis based on several countries (see: Schmidt et al., 2013; Brossard, Shanahan, & McComas, 2004), or a case-study of the United States or United Kingdom (see: Carvalho & Burgess, 2005; Boykoff, 2007; Antilla, 2005). In addition, these studies focus on the representation of climate change in general or specific events perceived to be the result of climate change. This research, however, focuses on the representation of climate change politics in the Netherlands; so not just individual climate events or processes, but how these are entwined with politics is examined. One Dutch newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’ will be analysed to find out how the representation of climate change politics has changed in the past ten years. First, a literature based problem definition is set out, including the main research question. After this, several core concepts and related theories are discussed. Then, the research design, including a conceptual framework showing the relations between the studied concepts, is presented. This is followed by the results, in which the four sub-questions are answered. Finally, conclusions, discussions, and recommendations are made. 1.2 Problem Statement As mentioned earlier, anthropogenic climate change poses a great environmental threat to both the human and natural world, and hence must be addressed (IPOC, 2017; Schmidt et al., 2013; Kirton et al., 2013). News media are influential in communicating this issue to the public. However, news media reporting climate change have been confronted by “accusations of exaggerating or downplaying risk and “bad” science” (Weingart et al., 2000, p. 261). Misrepresentations of scientific information along with the complex nature of climate change can cause ignorance among policy makers (Weingart et al., 2000). In order to find out if there is a pattern of climate change representations in the newspaper (which relates to certain geopolitical frames), knowledge about existing representations need to be acquired. Geopolitical frames are defined here as the ways in which newspapers highlight certain aspects of geopolitical issues; D'Angelo and & Kuypers (2010) refer to a frame as: “a manipulated channel for information dissemination” (p. 1). The following research question has been formulated: “How are the politics of climate change represented in Dutch newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’, and how has this changed over the last ten years?” 5 Chapter 2. Theoretical framework 2.1 (Popular) geopolitics of climate change In the 1980s literature emerged that criticized geopolitical thinking, as it operated “with a ‘view from nowhere’, a seeing that refuses to see itself and the power relationships that make it possible” (Tuathail, 1999, p. 107). As a response, the concept of critical geopolitics was developed, in which existing structures of power and knowledge were placed in question (Tuathail, 1999). Central to critical geopolitical thinking it is the assumption that the way in which the world is represented and knowledge is produced has political implications (Dalby, 2013). Thus, unlike geopolitics, critical geopolitics aims to understand geography as imbued with power (Tuathail, 1999). Numerous scholars have looked into the alterations that climate change entails for the geopolitical field. For example, Clark (2014) argues that due to the crossing of thresholds in Earth systems (leading to climate change) a new kind of geopolitics should be in place; one that is equally concerned with the dynamics and changes of our earth and the more “conventional” political issues based on territories and nation state boundaries. This means that political agenda should not only focus on nation state border, but also the spatial-temporal “borders” at which one state of an Earth system changes into a different one (such as