Media Access and Political Efficacy in the Eco-politics of Climate Change: Canadian National News and Mediated Policy Networks

ABSTRACT

We use a discourse network analysis approach to answer two questions about national news coverage of climate change policy debate in Canada during the period 2006–2010. First, what is the media visibility of actors relevant to policy development and advocacy on climate change? Second, given the political and economic context of climate policy-making in Canada, does greater or lesser media visibility reflect effectiveness in climate policy advocacy? Multiple interpretive frameworks characterize Canadian political discourse about climate change, with fragmentation between the federal government, opposition political parties, provincial governments, and environmental organizations. Contrary to expectations, environmental organizations had high levels of media visibility while the relative invisibility of fossil fuel corporations was notable in the media coverage of Canadian climate discussions. Our findings challenge optimistic accounts of the relationship between media power and political power, and suggest that media power does not necessarily translate to political efficacy.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• mass media
• environmental movement
• oil industry
• Canada

Acknowledgements

Jeffrey Broadbent and Philip Leifeld provided valuable input throughout the development of this project. We also thank Keith Warriner for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The authors would like to acknowledge the research assistance of Noelani Dubeta, Michelle Hay and Emily Maynard. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 2014 Canadian Sociological Association annual meetings, the 2014 International Sociological Association World Congress, and at the University of Helsinki. The authors wish to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers and editor for their feedback throughout the development of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Mark C. J. Stoddart http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5434-0161

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [SSHRC grant number 430-2011-0093]. This paper utilizes comparative research methods and data collection instruments collaboratively developed by the program on Comparing Climate Change Policy Networks (COMPON; http://compon.org/) initiated and led by Jeffrey Broadbent, University of Minnesota, with Co-PIs Dana R. Fisher and Katsumi Matsumoto and funded by the US National Science Foundation [grant number BCS-08270069].