Environmental news is barely reflected in newspaper/tabloids. But recent awareness of climate change has lead to rising reports on such issues. Is there a method to compare coverage taking into account political developments, categories or themes of coverage and also evaluate readership impact of such coverage?
Dear Sal
I don't have an answer but I would be interested in the answer. I am trying to understand the significance of leopard related news in my district.
Looks to me like you are talking about thematic analysis.
I would recommend Kimberly Neuendorf's book, The Content Analysis Guidebook.
My doctoral dissertation was a content analysis of news media articles. I located the news articles via keyword searches in Lexis-Nexis, did some descriptive statistics, and then used thematic analysis. I have attached a summary.
Thesis Portrayal of The Mission Of Higher Education In The Media: A...
There are a number of possible approaches to content analysis. My nanotechnology paper is one: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275034564_Informing_Dissemination_Research_A_Content_Analysis_of_US_Newspaper_Coverage_of_Medical_Nanotechnology_News?ev=prf_pub
Here are also some articles that could help develop your codebook:
Atwater, T., Salwen, M. B., & Anderson, R. B. (1985). Media agenda-setting with environmental issues. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 62(2), 393.
Banerjee, S., Gulas, C. S., & Iyer, E. (1995). Shades of green: a multidimensional analysis of environmental advertising. Journal of Advertising, 24(2), 21-31.
Deegan, C., & Rankin, M. (1996). Do Australian companies report environmental news objectively? An analysis of environmental disclosures by firms prosecuted successfully by the Environmental Protection Authority. Accounting, auditing & accountability journal, 9(2), 50-67.
Ader, C. R. (1995). A longitudinal study of agenda setting for the issue of environmental pollution. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 72(2), 300-311.
Article Informing Dissemination Research: A Content Analysis of U.S....
Dr.Kenneth Thanks for the info.
Well, you are right that Environmental Coverage is a wide topic. My understanding is that most coverage on the environment is concentrated around hot topics like climate change, tigers, oil spills etc. I seldom see environmental coverage make headline news. Other than weather updates which are pretty routine stuff, I also don't see it as a mainstream breaking/frontpage news unless its to do with a huge earthquake/tsunami/winter storm like event.
Thank you for sharing.
I've written two papers examining climate change coverage in the newspapers of ASEAN and the GCC. There are several different ways to go about things. I would not say that we have yet a definitive or standard way to do it. Perhaps you might look at the literature and assist working towards one.
I did look at those dimensions in the GCC paper. From the ASEAN paper: "The way different newspapers present the same news can vary enormously depending upon the newspaper in question. When we add to the mix different countries and cultures, the differences become noteworthy and offer insights into how each society views and potentially deals with environmental concerns. One of the first items that stands out with regards to coverage of global warming and climate change is the spike in stories referencing these terms between the years 2006 and 2008. It is very clear that the issue took on greater import during this time span. Two items immediately came to mind that may have prompted this increase: Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” came out in 2006, and there was a climate change conference in Bali in 2007. It turns out there were several items and events that occurred during the time span of the study."
Dear Salvador,
The method to compare coverage taking into account political developments, categories or themes of coverage and also evaluate readership impact of such coverage is to do a content analysis of the selected newspapers for the selected time period. ,
The standard methodology for newspaper content analysis with respect to coverage of Environment (or any other) related content will be to estimate the per cent of space devoted on particular themes advertisements, photos etc.. Further, placement of such stories also can be estimated and compared (page number, upper/lower half etc. with/without photo). One may also study coverage in terms of running exclusive stories by each newspaper.
Regards-
From the GCC paper: First, contrary to what one might think, the Gulf English-language newspapers do cover the issue of climate change – and not from a skeptical or deniers standpoint, rather a gradualism-oriented frame (Urry, 2011). ... Finally, “man” is indicated as contributing to climate change in roughly half of the articles sampled. Further, the articles tend to push the blame onto other countries as much as they indicate that the newspaper’s country or all countries are to blame. ... the coverage leaned towards “gradualism” – that is to say, the coverage seemed to place climate change in a context of just another issue that is gradually occurring and that can be managed with the right attention and proper policies. Urry, J. (2011). Climate change and society. London: Polity.
Hi Salvador,
Here's a link you may find useful:
https://books.google.com/books?id=FixGDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=content+analysis&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiXu7738dfcAhVFi1kKHRTQAk8QuwUILDAA#v=onepage&q=content%20analysis&f=false
Have a great day!
--Adrian
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Linguistics
- Composition Studies
- Publication