Media's Role in the Surfacing of Global Warming Discussions

In this day and age, it seems that you can't go a day without hearing politicians talk about their plans to combat global warming, seeing celebrities encouraging people to "go green," or seeing somebody driving a Prius. But how did global warming suddenly become such a hot topic? And are people really that concerned with global climate change?

Scientists have been theorizing about enhanced global warming for over a century. In 1896, Arrhenius put forward the theory of global climate change stemming from fossil fuel consumption and the resulting carbon dioxide emissions. However, as pointed out by David Demeritt: "Arrhenius's theory made no institutional or intellectual impact" (39). Despite even further research by scientists such as NASA's James Hansen, who declared in 1988 in front of the Senate that he was "99 percent sure" that global warming was happening, there was virtually no meaningful legislation addressing the issue until the 1990's. So, what triggered the introduction of global warming as a significant social issue? In 1997, global warming began to receive increased media attention, public awareness and risk perceptions began to increase significantly.

Using the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, television media coverage of global warming was analyzed from ABC (1968 through 2007), CBS (1968 through 2007), NBC (1968 through 2007), CNN (1995 through 2007), and Fox News (2004 through 2007). "Global warming" was used as the search term. A total of 1918 stories were collected.

The results show a very strong positive correlation [0.9894] between the year and the number of broadcasts presented that year. The average number of news broadcasts concerning global warming from 1968 through 1996 was approximately 14 stories per year. Since 1997, the number of broadcasts concerning global warming has risen to an average of approximately 139 stories per year.

According to researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "During the time between May of 1997 and September of 1998, for sixteen consecutive months, each month broke the previous monthly all-time record high temperature" (Karl, Knight, and Baker 1). Therefore, the exceptionally high temperature of this time period can be seen as the focusing event that finally engaged the media in seriously covering the issue. This is concurrent with Sheldon Ungar's assertion that, "environmental claims are most likely to be honored-and accelerate demands in the political arena-when they piggyback on dramatic real-world events" (1). Prior to this period, the effects of global warming did not have a direct impact on the daily lives of the public. As Walter Lippman stated:

"The problem of securing attention [...] is a problem of provoking feeling in the reader, of inducing him to feel a sense of personal identification with the stories he is reading. News which does not offer this opportunity to introduce oneself into the struggle which it depicts cannot appeal to a wide audience. The audience must participate in the news, much as it participates in the drama, by personal identification."

Leiserowitz describes global warming as a "prototypical example of 'hidden hazards'-risks that, despite their serious consequences for society, generally pass unnoticed or unheeded until they reach disaster proportions" (2). The media was probably reluctant to grant global warming much coverage prior to the obvious temperature increases because it was not a very compelling story. After the heat wave, however, it became an engaging story because the audience could relate to the story as it had a noticeable impact on their everyday lives.

Since 1997, numerous pieces of legislature concerning global warming have been introduced and continue to be introduced at an increasing rate in the United States. According to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change: "Members of the 110^th Congress are introducing legislation related to global climate change at a faster pace than any previous Congress. As of mid-February 2008, lawmakers had introduced more than 180 bills, resolutions, and amendments specifically addressing global climate change and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions-compared with the 106 pieces of relevant legislation the previous Congress submitted during its entire two-year (2005-2006) term." Some examples of this Congressional action are: S.2191, the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, S. 309, the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act, and S. 485, the Global Warming Reduction Act of 2007. Although the media has been decidedly effective at affecting public policy, its effect on public opinion is somewhat more complicated and less encouraging.

A survey conducted in March of 2003 found "no change in public attitudes about global warming" between 2001 and 2003("Giving Global Warming the Cold Shoulder" 1). Leiserowitz asserts that many while many Americans are aware of global warming and the seriousness of the issue, they "regard climate change as a relatively low national priority despite decades of scientific warnings" (2) and very few are willing to make inconvenient lifestyle changes to combat the problem; He also asserts that there is a very minimal effect on voter preferences based on candidates' global warming policies. Therefore, the recent action taken by the government to combat global warming should be largely attributed to the media's significant increase in coverage of the issue (in conjunction with the work of activists), rather than actual widespread public demand for the legislation.

Because of the large amount of press, the persuasive press inference takes effects. That is to say-"people infer public opinion from their perceptions of the content of media coverage and their assumptions of the persuasive impact of that coverage on others" (Gunther 1). In this case, the persuasive press inference would suggest that the general population perceives the level of public concern with global warming to be much higher than it actually is, possibly making individuals misreport the actual level of their concern for the environment because of pressure to appear as concerned as the rest of the population. Furthermore, Leiserowitz found that the majority of Americans do not have an accurate concept of the global climate system. Rather than "gradual, linear warming" (7), most people understand global warming to be "an abrupt and catastrophic climate change" (7). One reason for this could be the relatively delayed emanation of climate change as a public issue.

This case is a testament to the power of the media. In The Press Effect, Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Paul Waldman sum it up well: "The press both covers events and, in choosing what to report and how to report it, shapes their outcome" (95). In the case of global climate change, the media's portrayal has not been optimal however; it could have been a lot worse. While the press should be applauded for their role in finally bringing about legislation to combat the problem and bringing a certain level of awareness to the public, they have-possibly inadvertently-given the public unrealistic concepts of global warming.

Works Cited

Demeritt, David. "The Construction of Global Warming and the Politics of Science." Annals of theAssociation of American Geographers 91.2 (2001): 307-337. 27 Feb. 2008 .

"Global Warming: What's Being Done in Congress." The Pew Center on Global Climate Change. 29 Feb. 2008 .

Giving Global Warming the Cold Shoulder. Ed. Lydia Saad. Government & Public Affairs. 22 Apr. 2003. The Gallup Organization. 31 Feb. 2008 .

Gunther, Albert C. "The persuasive press inference; effects of mass media on perceived public opinion." Communication Research 25.n5 (Oct 1998): 486(19). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. Emerson College. 29 Feb. 2008 .

Jamieson, Kathleen Hall, and Paul Waldman. The Press Effect: Politicians,Journalists, and the Stories That Shape the Political World. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2003.

Karl, Thomas R, Richard W Knight, and Bruce Baker. "The Record Breaking Global Temperatures of 1997 and 1998: Evidence for an Increase in the Rate of Global Warming?" Geophysical Research Letters 27.5 (2000): 719-722. Abstract. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Climatic DataCenter. 19 Feb. 2008 .

Leiserowitz, Anthony A. "Before and after The Day After Tomorrow: a U.S. study of climate change risk perception." Environment 46.9 (Nov 2004): 22(16). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. Emerson College. 29 Feb. 2008 .

Lippman, Walter. "Newspapers." Public Opinion. 2002. University of Virginia American Studies Program. 29 Feb. 2008 .

Ungar, Sheldon. "The Rise and (Relative) Decline of Global Warming As a Social Problem." The Sociological Quarterly 33.4 (Dec. 1992): 483-501. Abstract. 29 Feb. 2008 .