Responsibility framing in a ‘climate change induced’ compounded crisis: Facing tragic choices in the Murray—Darling Basin

Abstract

Crises impose vast demands on political leaders' communicative abilities in terms of explaining the causes of the problem at hand as well as showing a plausible way out of the situation. These challenges become even more complex in connection with climate change induced compounded crises. These crises touch upon a broad range of issues, such as economic, environmental, social and energy policies. Drawing upon previous research on political crisis communication, this article aims to examine political actors framing strategies in connection with compounded crises and how these are affected by the media context in which they are communicated. The study rests on a case study examining The Australian's reporting of the drought in the Murray—Darling Basin in terms of how various actor groups portrayed in the reporting framed crisis responsibility. The article ends by proposing propositions for further research on responsibility framing in climate change induced compounded crises.

Keywords:

• climate change
• crisis communication
• drought
• environmental communication
• responsibility framing