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ABSTRACT
This article examines news coverage of climate skepticism in two Finnish newspapers between 1990 and 2021. It approaches climate skepticism as a professional problem that involves a tension between conventional professional ideals that underscore balanced coverage of conflicts and emerging ideals that stress communicating climate change responsibly. Content analysis focused on two core forms of climate skepticism that have remained relatively stable throughout the 31-year research period: evidence and process skepticism. The presence of all kinds of skeptical contents (skeptical arguments, arguments against skepticism, and descriptions of skepticism) was examined to evalutate the overall media visibility of climate skepticism. The analysis then focused specifically on the coverage of skeptical arguments. The role of sources as well as the use of journalistic voice in the presentation of skeptical contents was examined. This study elaborates earlier anecdotal accounts concerning the limited public role of climate skepticism in Finland. Four per cent of news articles included sources who were quoted presenting their own skeptical views. Skeptical arguments were mainly presented by quoting foreign sources whereas arguments against skepticism were presented by quoting domestic climate scientists. “Climategate” caused the most notable increase in the volume of skeptical contents during the research period.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 While popularly used the terms “climate skepticism” and “climate skeptic” are also contested. Some argue that it is more accurate or useful to speak of “deniers”, “denialists”, “contrarians” or “outliers”, for example (Painter Citation2011, 18). As it emerged around 1995, the term ”climate skepticism” was particularly to be found in the media, which in the 1990s began to register the contributions of businesses, think tanks and skeptical scientists as distinct voices within the US climate change policy debates (Painter and Ashe Citation2012, 2).
2 Quantitative measures were used to provide systematic description of volume and sources of skepticism coverage in the two newspapers examined. Qualitative analysis was used to offer a closer analysis of how journalistic voice (news narrator) was used in the presentation of climate skepticism.
3 Identifying articles that referred to climate skepticism was relatively straighforward, because evidence skepticism and process skepticism are related to a limited set of arguments that have remained relatively stable throughout the research period. Claims that the IPCC had underestimated or overestimated something (sea level rise or glacier melting, for example) were not included unless they were explicitly used to question climate change or the reliability of climates science. New scientific findings were not considered as arguments against climate skepticism unless they were explicitly connected to climate skepticism or skeptical arguments.
4 Survey respondents were asked whether they thought that climate scientists have exaggerated their findings. Majority of respondents felt that this was not the case, but some did suspect that critical views were – in one way or another – suppressed. A historian quoted in the article responded that “according to current knowledge it appears clear that especially scientists connected to the IPCC have subjected science to ideological and political ends” (HS Citation2009b). Another historian, a professor, quoted in the article compared increasing awareness of climate change to a religious awakening.
5 The benevolent interview itself, titled “Another truth on greenhouse effect”, was a typical “maverick story” that focused on an outsider who claims to know “the real truth”. The marine geologist’s e-mail address was printed at the end of the article, because he “was willing to debate with anyone interested in global warming” (HS Citation2001).