Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities

Framing and news sources in the coverage of climate change in Iranian press

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

M. Rahmanian 1
H. Afkhami 2

1 MA in Communication Science, Department of Communication Studies, Faculty of Communication Sciences, Allameh-Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Professor of Public Relations, Department of Public Relations, Faculty of Communication Sciences, Allameh-Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22035/isih.2022.4497.4469
Abstract
Climate change affects many aspects of human life, such as the economy, environment and society. Although its consequences are invisible for the public in short term, they are often informed about the negative aspects of climate change through the media. In other words, the media dedicate and cover news in order to make people aware about the impact of climate change. Number of researches has been conducted on the way the media frame and cover the climatic issues in many countries, but there is no such at present to show how this particular is being covered in the Iranian media. This paper is the first academic research to examine the coverage of climate change in the Iranian press. We have analyzed 388 climate stories published on 15 well-known national newspapers by using SPSS software and applying the quantitative content analysis method to understand how these newspapers could present climate stories. Findings show that the Iranian press often used “Conflict” and “Environmental Consequences” frames to illustrate climate change issues, but “Scientific Uncertainty” and “Current Weather” were rarely mentioned. Moreover, these newspapers relied mainly on “Experts” as sources more than the other sources to present climate stories.

Keywords

climate change
framing theory
global warming
Iranian press

Subjects

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  • Receive Date 30 June 2021
  • Revise Date 30 October 2021
  • Accept Date 06 December 2021

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