Framing of Climate Change Issues in Pakistani Media

Abstract

Aim of the Study: First and foremost, the media directly used scientific, economic, political and human-interest frames to pull the audiences’ attention and change their perception over climate change issues. This study aimed at identifying how climate change issues have been framed in Piraeus for Pakistan’s English print media. The aim of the study was to identify and trace frames on climate change through the selected news stories of Dawn and Express Tribune.

Methodology: Quantitative and qualitative content analysis was performed on the sought-out news stories. The source media stories consisted of written articles and opinion pieces by journalists reporting on and/or expressing opinions on climate change related issues; all the stories were analyzed through systematic coding and thematic content analysis and coding processes that facilitated the categorization of specific themes and framing of climate change related information in media.

Findings: Having analyzed the news stories in Dawn and Express Tribune, four programs/dominant frames emerged regarding the portrayal of climate change. In Dawn, Scientific frames dominated the news driven by the features that dominated content such as data and research. On the other hand, Express Tribune mainly focused on political and human interest which includes government laws, effects on community and individual stories. This difference in the dominant frames shows the difference on the AMRC media outlets have adopted in pursuing the climate change narrative.

Conclusion: This research endeavored to offer knowledge by filling a gap within the scholarly domain through exploring the manner in which climate change was pitched within media outlets. It also rendered in enhancing the knowledge of the participants belonging to the media sector, policymakers and communicating climate change science regarding the use of media for conveying awareness of climate change.