Climate changes in Portuguese and Spanish media

According to a study conducted by the Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra, the news on climate change published in Portugal and Spain favours political or technical narrative to the detriment of civil society. The study aimed to analyse Iberian media coverage of climate change. About 500 online news published in 2017 and 2018 were analysed (217 in Portugal and 232 in Spain).

The news was collected using the Google News database and selected according to media relevance in four time periods: from February to March 2017, June-July 2017, October-November 2017 and February-March 2018.

In general, the news in both countries "focuses on political or technical discourse, especially the debates between the different political parties, to the detriment of the discourse and behaviour of individuals. In the case of Portugal, for example, of the 217 news items analysed, only 12 were conciliatory towards civil society," says Neide Areia, author of the study published in the scientific journal Science of The Total Environment.

In addition, the news "tends to highlight alarming elements, such as the number of deaths or the mass extinction of species. Journalists tend to frame environmental issues by focusing too much on problems, whether they are the effects of climate change or the failure of political institutions to address them," says Neide Areia.

Drought - and its impact on agriculture - is the most commonly reported climate phenomenon in both countries (157 stories), followed by forest fires in Portugal.

According to the CES researcher, the results of this study show that "the media need to democratise communication about climate change by bringing the reality of the problem closer to the reality of the average individual. Instead of focusing on news related to international political-scientific debates or environmental disasters in other parts of the world, journalists should frame the issue of climate change at the level of local communities and individuals".

Given the influence of the media on public opinion, Neide Areia argues that "a more proactive discourse on climate change can make all the difference by influencing the adoption of sustainable behaviour (by the general public) and the implementation of environmental policies and laws (by policymakers)".

"In fact," Areia adds, "democratic communication on environmental issues - focusing on more climate-friendly news, such as actions taken by communities to deal with climate change, and not only on the failures of government environmental policies or climate-related disasters - would improve the media's active role in engaging individuals and promoting active societal responses to climate change." The study will be extended to France, Ireland and the UK. 1,600 news articles published in 2017 and 2018 are already being analysed. In a subsequent phase, the nature of privileged political speech in the news will also be analysed.

This research was carried out as part of the European project RiskAquaSoil: Atlantic Risk Management Plan in water and soil, which aims to identify the impacts of climate change on rural areas, contribute to risk management, the use of water and soil resources, the rehabilitation of agricultural land and the development of new practices.

The RiskAquaSoil project (launched in 2016) is led by Alexandre Tavares (Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Coimbra) and involves around 40 researchers from Spain, France, Ireland, Portugal and the UK.

^{Translation by Diana Taborda}