Muted by a Crisis? COVID-19 and the Long-Term Evolution of Climate Change Newspaper Coverage

Abstract

Reasons for the emergence of environmental issues in public debate have been widely studied, while reasons for the disappearance of environmental issues from the public agenda are researched to a far lesser extent. This article presents how the newspaper coverage of climate change has evolved in Finland. The study is based on long-term (1990–2020) data from the leading national-level newspaper. The climate coverage has been characterized by an increasing overall trend and remarkable fluctuations in the intensity of debate. The monthly coverage of climate change had four distinctive peak periods. The drops from peak levels are explained by several factors, such as the end of a specific news event or policy process (e.g., international climate policy meetings), lack of weather anomalies (e.g., normal winter weather and snow coverage), silence of key influencers (policy-makers, business elite), and news competition together with reporting fatigue following abundant climate coverage. The first months of the intense phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 showed a deep, but not unprecedented drop in climate coverage from the preceding peak level. The persistence of anthropogenic climate change, gradual mainstreaming of climate concerns across different societal sectors, and recent policy debates around so-called green or sustainable recovery suggest that climate coverage is not likely to be muted in the near future.

COVID-19 media coverage decreasing despite deepening crisis

“…6 These global-level findings are consistent with countrylevel studies to date. 4,7 Currently, although trending downward, the COVID-19 pandemic still occupies a large portion of media coverage compared with other issues. Connecting the pandemic to the 21st century challenges associated with climate change remains important.…”

Media Agenda and Press Conferences on COVID-19 in Mexico: An Analysis of Journalists’ Questions

“…These communication theories have also been used to describe how the pandemic has swamped media coverage, crowding out other important issues. For example, a Finnish newspaper study shows how the beginning phase of the pandemic in 2020 was related to a drop in previous climate coverage [15]. These studies demonstrate the applicability of communication theories in research on media coverage of COVID-19.…”

Climate Change vs COVID-19 - A Comparative Analysis of Global Crises in Canadian Newspaper Coverage

“…These marches also correspond with the IPCC reports declaration of a +1.5° threshold by 2030, after which the effects of climate change become irreversible. This period was interrupted by the emergence of COVID-19, which quickly dominated the media and public attention, pushing climate change out of the spotlight, albeit not out of the media entirely (Lyytimäki et al, 2020).…”

“…As previous literature has stated, climate change never disappears from the media entirely due to its long-term nature but may diffuse and be discussed in tandem with other current issues (Boykoff et al, 2011;Lyytimäki et al, 2020). Therefore, an additional search was conducted to include the term 'COVID-19' within the climate change results.…”