Game Over for the Climate: The Keystone XL Pipeline on TV News

• In Event: 331 - Section on Environment and Technology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 14. Media, Education, and the State of the Field

Abstract

The overwhelming consensus of the world’s climate scientists is that we must rapidly reduce our greenhouse emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic and irreversible climate change. Yet the Keystone XL pipeline, proposed to carry tar sands oil containing three to four times the carbon emissions of conventional gasoline across the U.S., was supported by a solid majority of Americans. This level of support for a project that would dramatically increase greenhouse gas emissions, pollute sensitive lands and water sources, and threaten the health and safety of communities along the way begs the question: what kind of information have Americans received about the pipeline?
Relying on theoretical perspectives developed by scholars who examine power structures, ideology, and the political economy of the mass media, I analyze 177 national network and cable news broadcasts in order to determine what kind of information leading media sources provide to the public about the Keystone XL pipeline proposal. Content analysis of broadcast transcripts reveals that television news stations exhibit biased coverage that encourages viewers to support pipeline construction. Furthermore, television news stations marginalize environmental and social concerns and disproportionately rely on business and government sources for information. Finally, the dominant frame employed by the news media is informed by neoliberal ideology and offers no challenge to the preferences of corporate and government elites—including the continued dominance of the fossil fuel industry. This type of coverage affords viewers a very limited basis for understanding the environmental and ultimately social threats posed by Keystone XL.

Author

• Elisabeth Wilder, Northeastern University