Media Representation of Climate Change North and South of the Border
There’s no denying the climate crisis, but what about media’s ability to communicate it?
The Irish Independent, The Sun, Irish Examiner, The Irish Times, Derry Journal, Belfast Telegraph, Irish Daily Star, The Irish News, Business Post, Irish Daily Mail, Irish Farmers Journal. These are just some of the leading print and digital publications across the island of Ireland. Espousing different politics and different audiences, is there anything that unites them? There’s something: the climate crisis never makes the lead story across these publications.
The representation of climate change in the media across the island largely follows international trends. Namely, there’s not much of it. In fact, there’s even less of it in Ireland with 2022 research revealing that news media in Ireland reports less frequently on climate change than European outlets on average. Around UN annual climate summits, we see a surge of media coverage of climate and nature across the island, for example, at COP26 in Glasgow. However, more often than not, climate change is crowded out by other less important issues, like celebrity gossip and media scandals.
When climate or nature does emerge as a lead story, it is often framed as a political or ideological game, emphasising the personalities or parties involved. We saw this particularly in the recent debates about the EU Nature Restoration Law as well as the passing of the two Climate Bills through the Northern Ireland Assembly last year. It is also worth pointing out that when issues associated with climate and nature collapse are raised, they are often discussed without naming the elephant in the room. Are heatwaves talked about in the context of climate change? Is global temperature rise attributed to burning fossil fuels? It is often context that is missing in reporting across Ireland, with media mis-framing preventing the public from reacting to the climate emergency as if it were just that – an emergency.
With many Irish publications in the grip of apathy, or in some cases disinformation and denial, the Irish Times tends to offer the greatest volume of coverage among national newspapers. Head over to the ‘Environment’ section of the Irish Times and you will find a long list of articles and opinion pieces on the twin climate and nature crises. These pieces not only have a local relevance, covering views on farming and transport in Ireland, but also an international focus. For example, over recent months, there is strong coverage of the Global Finance Summit co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley, as well as weather patterns like El Niño and more recently, the devastating wildfires raging across Greece. Where climate change reporting is influenced by the levels of knowledge, interest and capacity of individual journalists and editors, people like Kevin O’Sullivan, Environment and Science Editor of the Irish Times, have played a key role in keeping climate and nature prominent on the agenda.
Compare the Irish Times with leading newspaper in Northern Ireland, the Belfast Telegraph, and the contrast is striking. On the Belfast Telegraph website, you are greeted with Sport, Life, Entertainment and more. No section dedicated to the environment. A quick search of both the words ‘climate’ and ‘environment’ yields over 50,000 results, however, few articles are actually dedicated to the climate and environmental crises. Instead, many articles about sport, lifestyle, culture simply contain these words. BelfastLive also lacks a section on the environment on their website, offering content related to sport, traffic, food and drink, health, and cost of living. Ironically, climate and nature touch all these topic areas.
When it comes to cross-border coverage of environmental issues, Reach Solutions Ireland (part of the British national news publisher Reach PLC) covers issues related to climate and nature both north and south of the border. Reach has a dedicated environment correspondent, Shauna Corr, who writes for the Irish Mirror and Mirror NI, among other local publications. Irish media outlets could take note on Corr’s in-depth reporting on issues of local salience to people in cities across the island.
Where the framing of climate change is influenced by the politics and ideological outlook of individual media outlets, it is worth reinforcing that the lack of a functioning Executive and Assembly in Northern Ireland has routinely stalled any progress in climate action and nature recovery. With no MLAs and civil servants unable to make new decisions or renew budgets, climate reporting is an uphill struggle. Where climate progress in Ireland and the EU is far from sufficient, at least there are policy announcements and packages to report on. The Green party in coalition also has an agenda-setting effect, increasing public engagement.
In any case, a logical next step for all publications across the island is to think about holding advertisers to higher standards to guard against greenwashing of polluting products. As a columnist for the Belfast Telegraph, it is slightly jarring seeing my pieces on climate and nature interspersed with advertisements for bumper holiday packages and fossil fuel guzzling cars. Naturally, papers need to make money and a ban on certain advertisements would be highly contested, but both governments north and south of the border could consider providing financial support to improve and strengthen climate change coverage.
Ultimately, media outlets have a deep influence on the perception of the climate crisis, including the ways that environmental issues are framed and interrogated. Yet, if you look at what makes the front pages in papers across the island, it is clear that something is missing from our national conversation.
Crisis? What crisis?
