Sea Ice Minima and the News Coverage of Arctic Climate Change: Views From the USA, UK, and Sweden

• In Event: Climate Change in the News: Regional, National, and International Perspectives

Abstract

The increased political and media profile of climate change, over the past decade, has helped change earlier discourses and abstract imaginaries of global warming, greenhouse effect and ozone depletion into more concrete social concerns associated with the changing Arctic and planetary future. In 2007, satellite data indicated that Arctic sea-ice plummeted to its lowest level since 1979, possibly marking a tipping point in global climate change. In 2012, a new record surpassed the 2007 level. On the whole, global climate change has morphed into a mediatized meta-event with open-ended futures. This paper presents a study of how Arctic climate change has been treated in the quality press between 2003 and 2010. The discussion focuses both on the broader frames and issues in the news stories, and on the particular question of a change of media attitude in understanding climate change indicators such as the changes in the Arctic sea ice

Author

• Miyase Christensen, Stockholm University; Royal Institute of Technology(KTH)