Framing Reality: Portrayals of Climate Change in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997-2014

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Paper Session: Environmental Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

The desert Southwest of the United States—particularly Las Vegas, Nevada—has become a precarious environment amid extreme prolonged drought and infrastructural issues pertaining to water distribution. Yet media analyses of this region, and others experiencing acute climate change impacts, remain scant. As such, this analysis examines climate change frames in the Las Vegas Review-Journal among 1,111 articles between 1997 and 2014. Findings reveal positive, significant relationships between magnitudes of attribution of responsibility and economic consequences frames; human interest and morality frames; and conflict and economic consequences frames. Discussions of geospatial context among articles remains primarily regional and national; authorship patterns are constrained to a small group of individuals over time; and placement patterns in the physical publication are mostly situated behind the front page and section. The prevalence of conflict and economic consequences frames are discussed relative to the situated geospatial context of the publication and framing theory.

Author

• Jason Holley, Cornell U