Climate Change Communication on Twitter : Influence of Media Logic

Abstract: This study examines how media logic of news reporting influences climate change journalism on Twitter. It is of great importance that the information about climate change is being properly communicated to the public. However, it is often problematic to send the right message to the public, that would result in public acting towards protecting environment. This happens due to media logic of news reporting that impacts the way climate change is presented by the media. However, previous research indicates that the audience is more likely to trust journalists on Twitter, meaning that is likely for climate change to be represented more accurately there. For this reason, this thesis examines whether this is the case with environmental journalism on Twitter. The aim of this research is to identify the impact of Twitter’s counter-hegemonic discourses towards climate change reporting, to what extent they affect media logic of news reporting. This is done by conducting quantitative content analysis on environmental journalists’ tweets about climate change. Journalists are divided into two groups for comparison of influence of media logic: staff and freelance journalists. The findings demonstrate that when in it comes to credible reporting, staff environmental journalists are less likely to oppose media logic in comparison to freelance journalists. Additionally, neither type of journalist is likely to oppose media logic when it comes to providing public participation promoting reporting. Research is based on Altheide’s theory of media logic.