Other researchers have found that a classic content analysis can provide insights as to the types of coverage and its relative frequency (for example, O’Neill 2013), or the “loudness” of an issue within a media environment, but that a more qualitative approach such as frame analysis is required to discern an issue’s “strength” (Chong and Druckman, 2007b). O’Neill (2013) implies that a content analysis is a separate process and approach to a framing analysis, and indeed there seems to be considerable difference of opinion in the academy as to whether framing is a separate research method, or if it comprises a form of the coding of data which falls within content analysis. Krippendorf states that the coding phase of a content analysis involves “classifying the units according to the categories of the analytical constructs chosen” (Krippendorf, 1989, p. 407), a description broad enough to accommodate frames as a unit to be classified.
When considering climate change images in the media, Chong and Druckman (2013) make a distinction between content and frame analysis, and state that the latter has more in common with Critical Discourse Analysis because it is relevant to the construction of meaning (p. 13). Others consider framing as part of what Rosengran (1981) calls the content analysis “family”, suggesting that the framing approach is in effect a qualitative content analysis (Semetko and Valkenburg, 2000, p. 97). Maxwell Boykoff combines “investigations of framing” with CDA in his study of the cultural politics of media coverage of climate change in UK tabloids (Boykoff, 2008).
Some of the confusion about whether framing sits within content analysis or constitutes a separate methodology is due to the association of content analysis with quantitative approaches to data, and likewise with the association of framing analysis with qualitative approaches. However, this dichotomy is misleading, as a best-practice guide for media coverage of climate change research points out: quantitative and qualitative methods can be both descriptive and explanatory (Schäfer et al., 2016). Content analysis is more usually concerned with statistical data and the coding of descriptive variables of each unit of analysis. Framing, meanwhile, may appear more subjective as the identification of frames, and the detection of their presence, is often left to the individual researcher. It would sometimes appear that those scholars interested in the cultural resonances of media coverage of climate change, or in linking coverage with social or political theory, tend to view frame analysis as separate from content analysis, while scholars more interested in the construction of meaning within the media view framing as existing within the territory of content analysis.
For the purposes of this research, I take the position that frame analysis can be part of a content analysis, and that frames may be coded accordingly. The danger of subjectivity in selecting a typology of frames may be diminished by using typologies from previous research, and measures to ensure inter-coder reliability may also dispel fears that the presence of frames has been subjectively identified.
One of the criticisms of framing studies is the absence of a uniform approach that each one creates a framing typology ab initio to suit the research topic at hand (Dahl, 2015), that the frames are operationally defined (Bowe et al., 2012) and that framing researchers exhibit a tendency to “reinvent the wheel” (Nisbet, 2010, p. 46). Some of this debate on how best to operationalise frame analysis involves arguments as to whether generic frames (Semetko and Valkenburg, 2000) or “episodic” frames (Iyengar, 1991) are best suited to providing replicable results. Tankard recommends the “list of frames” approach, which identifies 11 framing mechanisms, and has, he claims, the the advantage of being replicable, of taking the subjectivity out of the identification of frames, of being reliable, and of allowing theory-building and theory-testing (Tankard, 2001, p. 101). Tankard and others (for example, Nisbet & Scheufele 2009) concede that, while using established frame typologies can help bring coherence to a fragmented field, there will always be a need to allow issue-specific frames emerge from the data. Tankard states that “…frames and frame indicators must be discovered and defined for each new topic under investigation. This step seems unavoidable, since framing deals fundamentally with the differences in the ways particular stories are presented.” (2001, p.102). The authors of a “best-practice” guide for researchers into media coverage of climate change recommend that scholars “look for existing conceptual tools” while also pointing out that generic
approaches are best suited to issue-comparison studies, while issue-specific approaches are best suited to in-depth analysis (Schäfer et al. 2016, p.5-10).
Accordingly, this thesis uses a combination of existing frame typologies, while also allowing new frames to emerge from the data. The broad coding schema derives from typologies put forward by Matthew Nisbet (2009) and Saffron O’Neill et al (2015). Nisbet, in an influential essay on the importance of frames for public engagement, suggested a typology of frames relevant to media analyses of climate change: social progress, economic development and competitiveness, morality and ethics, scientific and technical uncertainty, Pandora’s Box, public accountability and governance, middle way/alternative path, conflict and strategy. In their supplementary material supplied with their research paper, O’Neill and her colleagues provide a thorough examination of frames in existing studies before putting forward the following typology: settled science, uncertain science, political or ideological struggle, disaster, opportunity, economic, morality and ethics, role of science, security and health (O’Neill, H. Williams, et al., 2015). In addition to these frames commonly found in science-related policy debates, two other frames specific to the issue of climate change in an Irish context were detected in the data: a communitarian/cosmopolitan frame and an agriculture frame. The complete typology of frames is set out in Table 4.2 below.
Table 4.2 Typology of frames coded in this thesis Frame Contains Political or ideological contest References to summits, conferences and talks, to climate change as a political issue, to the stances on climate change of political parties or politicians, to political posturing in advance of climate talks, to political point- scoring and jockeying for position on the issue of climate change, to assessments as to who is “winning” or “losing” in the political battle to implement climate policies, to the “game” of climate negotiation, to climate change as a battle between elites, and explicit references to a “left versus right” conflict regarding the implementation of climate policies. Policy or technical References to measurements, records, or assessments which are policy-neutral and which do not suggest, recommend or imply any particular course of action Morality or ethics
References to the moral imperative of dealing with climate change, to the impact of inaction on future generations, to climate change generally as a religious issue, to climate change as related to humanity’s stewardship of the planet, to the impact of climate change on those who have done least to cause it (climate justice), or to explicit references to fairness, justice or equity. Opportunity References to climate change as an economic or business opportunity, to positive impacts or consequences of climate change mitigation and adaptation, to economic benefits of energy efficiency, to strategic opportunities for Ireland in developing green technologies, to the benefits of reducing dependency on imported fossil fuels, and to opportunities in replacing fossil fuel with renewables. Agriculture References to the impacts of climate change on agriculture, to the contribution of agriculture to Ireland’s total emissions, and to reactions to suggestions that these emissions be reduced, to the cultivation of forestry as a carbon sink, to the reduction of meat in human diet, to land use, to CAP reform or talks, and to food security. Settled science References to the reality of climate change and to the necessity of doing something about it, to the science of climate change, to the publication of scientific reports (including IPCC reports), to the issuing of climate data, to specific ways in which individuals or governments can undertake mitigation or adaptation measures, and to the measured impacts of climate change (e.g. flooding, rising sea levels, species depletion, crop failure, famine, temperature rise). Contested science References to climate change as not happening, or being due to natural causes, suggestions that any initiatives to mitigate climate change or to reduce individual or sectoral emissions are misguided, references which confuse weather and climate, which suggest that the science of climate change is contested, that climate scientists are in error or may change their minds, which cite the University of East Anglia email theft as evidence of a conspiracy among climate scientists, which contain dismissive or sarcastic dismissals of environmental campaigners or politicians.
Disaster References to climate change as an unavoidable disaster, or as a looming apocalypse, to the catastrophic impacts of climate change (which do not contain references to the possibility of mitigating climate change or adapting to it, or to a combination of both), to the impact of climate change on specific species, or parts of the world, or to exclusively negative economic impacts.
Domestication or communitarianism
References to Ireland’s emissions as a percentage of global emissions, to Ireland’s emissions targets, to Ireland’s negotiating strategies in climate change talks, to the impacts of climate change on Ireland specifically, and to the minimal impact on global emissions any mitigation measures Ireland may take are coded as featuring this frame.
Economic References to the economic cost of mitigation or adaptation, to market-based solutions to climate change, to entrepreneurial activity in the climate sector, to the effects of climate change on various areas of economic activities (car manufacturing, aviation etc.), to the cost of energy production.
In addition to these frames, two topics were also coded for in the analysis of the data: stories mentioning the Green Party and stories alluding to turf-cutting2. The idea of coding a Green Party frame was considered, but it was found that stories concerning the Green Party were accommodated more naturally in other, more conceptual frames. The Green Party was therefore recorded as a topic rather than as a frame. Turf-cutting has been a contentious subject in Ireland for at least two decades, ever since the National Parks and Wildlife Service surveyed Ireland’s peatlands in the late 1990s and 139 raised bogs were designated under the EU Habitats Directive (Lowes, 2013). In 1998, the Irish Government sought and was granted a 10-year derogation on implementing the Habitats Directive; the derogation expired in 2008, and in 2010, the Green Party minister for the environment announced that, under the terms of the Directive, the cutting of turf on these bogs would cease. There was opposition to the ban, especially in the Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon areas. Candidates opposing the ban were elected to the Irish parliament and the European parliament. In 2015, the government renewed efforts to implement the ban (McGee, 2015b). Given the importance of bogs as carbon sinks (Cooke, 2014) and the impact on the climate of burning turf (Irish Peatland Conservation Council, 2009), it was thought that this issue was pertinent to the debate over climate action in Ireland. Furthermore, given its political prominence, with the election of protest candidates and the intervention of Green Party politicians, and the place of cutting turf for domestic use in the national consciousness (Clifford, 2016), the issue offered possibilities as a prism through which to view certain rural-urban aspects of the climate change debate in Ireland.
2 Only two articles were coded to the turf-cutting frame, and therefore it does not