Critical Analysis of Climate Change Discourse in Newspaper Homepage Headlines

master's thesis

• Author: Matea Bajs
• Mentor: Marina Grubišić (mentor)
• Committee member: Ivana Bašić (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Anđel Starčević (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2020-11-19, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

Critical discourse analysis is an approach comprised of a combination of various disciplines and methods used to analyze the connection between discourse and society. The focus of CDA is on power relations, that is, how power is being produced and reproduced through discourse. In this paper the aim is to critically analyze how climate change discourse is presented by the media in three different countries. Climate change is causing problems for nature, animal life and humans since due to the rise in temperature, thus understand ow climate is perceived may help in finding the way to mitigate its effects. Since media is the usual source of information for the public, it is they who impact public’s perception of climate change. Media have the power to decide how they frame climate change. More precisely, their choice of vocabulary, the visibility of the news, the amount of space given to the news, style of reporting is included in audience’s construction of meaning of climate change. In the research conducted in this paper, the aim was to compare how media frames climate change in newspapers headlines in the UK, the US and Croatia. The focus was on the visibility of climate change headlines, general portrayal of climate change and whether the style of reporting is neutral or do the headlines contain a call for activism. The results have shown that British media outlets have the higher visibility of climate change headlines on the homepage, while Croatian media outlets have the lowest. Furthermore, media outlets in all three countries presented a negative portrayal of climate change supporting the “realists” view on climate change which is based on scientific evidence. Finally, British media outlets included both explicit and implicit calls for activism, while American and Croatian newspapers do not express urgency for action against climate change.

• Keywords: critical discourse analysis; climate change; media; newspaper headlines; framing
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:079072
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation, TEFL; Course: Linguistics; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Access restricted to students and staff of home institution
• Created on: 2020-11-24 14:03:28