Page 139 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

122 J. Newig

Fig. 11.1 Dynamics of news media communication about climate change. Depicted are numbers
of articles per month in the German daily newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” for the
period of 1994–2009, in which the keywords greenhouse effect (Treibhauseffekt), climate change
(Klimawandel), global warming (Erderwärmung) or climate protection (Klimaschutz) appear
(3 period moving average)

climate change, these would include an actual increase in average temperature,
natural disasters attributed to it (such as Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New
Orleans in August 2005) or other indicators. However, such events hardly predict
media attention to climate change. Scholars following Downs (1972) see the ups
and downs of media attention in the intrinsic quality of the issue itself, such as its
more or less ‘exciting’ qualities or the facts of who would gain or lose when politi-
cal action is taken. In a yet more constructivist perspective, the inherent logic of the
media system and its narrative considerations are seen to play a crucial role as well
(McComas and Shanahan 1999).
The media discourse on climate change has not only developed quantitatively,
but also qualitatively. For instance, the discourse has moved from more scientific
issues to those of mitigation and adaptation (see Weingart et al. 2000 for the early
period from 1975 to 1995). Whereas climate change articles used to appear pre-
dominantly in the science section of newspapers such as the German F.A.Z., they
have since moved to the politics section. Part of climate change communication in
the media is the discussion of whether it is actually happening or not. In that it
helped bring the issue to the political agenda and keep it there, media discourse has
clearly had an important agenda-setting function (Pralle 2009).
The political system itself can, according to Luhmann, be further differentiated
into the centre, formed by the government and the opposition, and the periphery,
starting with political parties and interest groups and extending to social movements
and the broad public (‘Publikum’).