DIGITAL FRAMING OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN MEXICO : Climate change during the 2020 local elections

Abstract: Studies of journalism have predominantly focused on the West, neglecting large parts of the world including all parts of the Americas apart from the USA. Studying media in Mexico attempts to contribute to the de-Westernisation of media studies, since there is a clear research gap in the field. The Natural Resources Defence Council (2021) has warned that Mexico's retreat from international climate commitments is globally significant and notorious. This makes a study of journalistic representations of climate change and environmental issues relevant in an international perspective. The aim of this study is to analyze a series of articles collected in the digital newspapers Milenio and La Jornada whiting the scope of framing theory. Frames are organizing principles and they will be analyzed in the form of frequency as well as patterns of frame usage, taking as a guide some of the main modes of framing which scholars have pointed out, and by being open for framing categories that could be detected inductively in the material. The work carried in by the research attempts to shed some light on specific variables such as actors that are given voice in these digital outlets and the frames which are salient in the media coverage of climate change, as well as the events that trigger the coverage. The results of the study indicate that in Mexico, a country with its vital productive sectors deeply intertwined within North America and Latin America, the coverage on climate change relies highly on sources from abroad, especially on global news agencies.