Uncertainty and Opinion Divergence Framing in Climate Change News, 2009-2015

• In Event: Framing the Environment

Abstract

The prevalence of uncertainty and opinion divergence (disagreement, controversy, and skepticism) frames in climate change journalism cause many to point to journalists as guilty of misrepresenting the expert consensus on climate science. However, the extant research has conflated the diverse and fundamentally disparate meanings of uncertainty and opinion divergence that vary across the different sources and topics that they reference, invalidating the conclusions drawn about journalism practice. In this study, we combat this conflation by analyzing the co-occurrences of distinct opinion types, sources, and topics in mainstream climate change journalism between 2009 and 2015. Results indicate that while uncertainty and opinion divergence are indeed common, they overwhelmingly are used in reference to non-scientist sources and topics such as legislation or the severity of climate change effects. That is, journalists very rarely depict the classical, oft-maligned portrayal of discord between scientists and others about the existence or causes of climate change.

Authors

• Ronald E. Rice, U of California, Santa Barbara

• Abel Thomas Gustafson, U of California at Santa Barbara

• Zane Hoffmann, U of California, Santa Barbara

• Lauren McGrath, U of California, Santa Barbara