Civic Advocacy Journalism in Practice: Reports on the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit

Abstract: With the changing political, economic, cultural and environmental landscape of global societies, journalistic writings on social development issues and concerns have become more relevant in recent times. Through civic advocacy journalism (CAJ), the agenda and programs of social development movements, civil society groups, international development organizations and non-government organizations are promoted and advanced. It is essential to understand the forms and representations of CAJ in practice, concepts and theories in the light of its relevance to media practice and to society at large. However, there is very little literature on the scope and extent of CAJ knowledge and practice. A researcher needs to look into actual practice and connect this with available literature to establish the application of CAJ. For this study, a qualitative content analysis method was used to assess CAJ practice in online print media reports at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit.