Understanding broadsheet newspaper attention to climate change objective facts in South Africa

Abstract

South Africa is one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts and risks of climate change in Africa. News media outlets play an important role in communicating content relating to climate change. Newspaper attention devoted to climate change has been more prolific in the Global North. To understand the portrayal of climate change science in news media in South Africa, this study examined objective facts coverage in three leading broadsheet newspapers between 1996 and 2016. Overall, this study found that newspaper coverage of climate change was at the highest peak in 2011. The findings revealed that attention to objective facts (observed climate trends, climate change impacts, and climate change projections) was not significant over a 20-year period. We found that objective facts generally dominated coverage in 2006 and 2007. Our findings indicate that newspaper attention to objective facts significantly decreased over the years. We also found that climate politics was the most dominant topic in the news articles. This study concludes that there is a considerable disconnect between the print media and objectivity when reporting climate change news stories in South Africa.