Book Review: Climate Change as Social Drama: Global Warming in the Public Sphere

Building on theories of valuation and evaluation, we develop an analytical framework that outlines six elements of the process of consolidation of an idea in the public sphere. We then use the framework to analyse the process of consolidation of the idea of climate change mitigation between 1997 and 2013, focusing on the interplay between ecological and economic evaluations. Our content analysis of 1274 articles in leading newspapers in five countries around the globe shows that (1) ecological arguments increase over time, (2) economic arguments decrease over time, (3) the visibility of environmental nongovernmental organizations as carriers of ecological ideas increases over time, (4) the visibility of business actors correspondingly decreases, (5) ecological ideas are increasingly adopted by political and business elites and (6) a compromise emerges between ecological and economic evaluations, in the form of the argument that climate change mitigation boosts, rather than hinders economic growth.

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Book Review: Persuasion and Conversion: Essays on Religion, Politics, and the Public Sphere in Early Modern England. By W. J. Torrance Kirby

Theological Studies ◽

10.1177/0040563914548659c ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 75 (4) ◽

pp. 942-943

Author(s):

Kathryn Reklis

Keyword(s):

Public Sphere ◽

Early Modern ◽

Early Modern England ◽

The Public ◽

The Public Sphere

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Comparing Climate Change Coverage in Canadian English and French-Language Print Media: Environmental Values, Media Cultures, and the Narration of Global Warming

The Canadian Journal of Sociology ◽

10.29173/cjs9733 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

pp. 25-54 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Nathan Young ◽

Eric Dugas

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Public Sphere ◽

Print Media ◽

Environmental Sociology ◽

French Language ◽

Canadian English ◽

The Public ◽

The Media ◽

Convergence And Divergence ◽

The Public Sphere

This article compares how climate change is presented in English- and French-language print media in Canada. In recent years, climate change has become an increasingly divisive issue, with the media playing a central role in the promotion of competing claims and narratives in the public sphere. Using concepts from environmental sociology and the sociology of journalism, we examine content from six English- and two French-language newspapers from 2007-2008 (N=2,245), and find significant evidence of both convergence and divergence across the language divide. Among the most significant findings are differences in how complexity is handled: English outlets present diverse coverage that is highly compartmentalized, while the French newspapers present a narrower range of coverage but with thematically richer articles that better link climate change issues to the realms of culture, politics, and economy.

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