Summoned by Science: Reporting Climate Change at Copenhagen and Beyond
James Painter
In Summoned by Science: Reporting Climate Change at Copenhagen and Beyond, researchers analysed more than 400 articles published in the print media in 12 countries from the developed and developing world. They found that the media in all the countries tended to 'under-report' climate science during the summit. Articles written principally about the science of climate change represented less than a tenth of all the coverage surveyed. Nearly 80 per cent of the articles mentioned the science in less than 10 per cent of their column space. The views of climate change sceptics were quoted in the Western press but not by media in the developing world. The study suggests this is partly because coverage of the hacked emails at the University of East Anglia or 'Climategate' was largely concentrated in developed countries, primarily the UK and the US.