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Bl oggi ng and t weet i ng cl i mat e change
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Tanj a Bosch
Ver si on of r ecor d f i r st publ i shed: 15 Mar 2012
To ci t e t hi s art i cl e: Tanj a Bosch ( 2012) : Bl oggi ng and t weet i ng cl i mat e change i n Sout h Af r i ca,
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Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies Volume 33 (1) 2012
ISSN Print 0256-0054/Online 1942-0773 2012 iMasa
DOI: 10.1080/02560054.2011.636825 pp 4453
Blogging and tweeting climate change
in South Africa
Tanja Bosch
Abstract
It is widely agreed that the mainstream mass media play an important role in the climate change
debate by providing coverage and thus placing the issue on the public agenda; by providing
their audiences with the key aspects of the debate and information related to mitigation and
adaption; and, to a lesser extent, by driving policy agendas. Much research on media coverage
of climate change is located in the North; and the media is often taken to mean mainstream
print newspaper media. As the body of literature exploring links between the media and climate
change grows, there is a glaring absence of studies about and from the global South, and of
a focus on new forms of journalism and social media. With the global decline of newspaper
circulation internationally and in South Africa, this article argues for an increased focus on digital
journalism in the examination of the media coverage of climate change. Journalists blogs on
the Mail & Guardian newspapers Thought Leader site, and Twitter newsfeeds are analysed
qualitatively to argue that while there is some similarity in the coverage between print and online
media, the latter has the potential to reach audiences more effectively and immediately, with the
growth of the mobile Internet in South Africa.
Keywords: blogging, climate change journalism, digital journalism, South Africa, Thought
Leader, Twitter
Introduction
The media play a key role in framing climate change, in particular by giving voice
to some viewpoints while suppressing others (Anderson 2009) and framing debates
on the issue, which may be helpful in the process of forming public opinion. In
general, the news media are the main sources oI inIormation on science-related issues,
including climate change. The mass media are thus key actors in the identifcation and
interpretation of environmental issues, shaping public perceptions and driving policy
agendas (Anderson 2009).
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Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies 33(1): 4453 2012 Institute for Media Analysis in South Africa
Climate change is often accorded less importance than more immediately pressing
socioeconomic issues such as unemployment, crime and poverty (Moser and Dilling
2004, 36) particularly in the media of the global South. In South Africa, as in many
other developing countries, there is a worrying lack of public awareness of climate
change and solutions for it (Sapa 2010). The media have the potential to inform
vulnerable communities of potential impacts and how they can adapt to them, and
can promote mitigation activities. Quality media coverage can also result in better-
inIormed publics and policy-makers, thus promoting global awareness and Iacilitating
a sustainable outcome to intergovernmental climate change negotiations (CCMP 2011).
In South Africa, consideration of the mainstream mass media has to take into
account the rise in online journalism and social media. Local activists use mobile and
online social networking to promote events and causes, and, similarly, journalists use
digital media for research and to reach new audiences. With the rise of Web 2.0 and
increased access to the Internet, digital journalism in South Africa has spread to include
a strong Iocus on user-generated content, with traditional news media using Twitter and
other social media to generate reader feedback (Bosch 2010).
Given the wide range of content analysis studies on mass media and climate change
reporting, this article shifts the focus to online media in South Africa, particularly
Twitter newsIeeds and blogs, more specifcally the Thought Leader blogs linked to the
Mail & Guardian online newspaper. This article provides some refection on the role
of online journalism in the coverage of climate change, particularly in the context of
South Africa, with implications for the global South, more broadly speaking. Drawing
on a qualitative content analysis of Twitter newsfeeds originating from South Africa,
and blog posts on the topics of climate change and the environment during the period
January July 2011, this article argues that journalism (and citizen journalism) is
increasingly moving to online platforms, and that the discourse on climate change may
have greater potential for development in online news sources than in the traditional
mainstream print media.
This article frst provides a brieI overview oI existing literature on the media and
climate change, to contextualise the present study. This is followed by a discussion of
online journalism and social media, and an exploration of its potential to contribute
to the public debate on climate change. This study is oI particular signifcance given
the accepted notion that it is the global South which has contributed least to climate
change, but which will suffer most from its impacts. It is here where the media are ill
prepared for the challenge (Painter 2007; Shanagan 2009).
Brief literature review
Since the 1990s, researchers from a range of disciplines have been investigating how
the media report anthropogenic climate change. Some have provided snapshot studies,
while others have tracked the development of issues over longer periods (Anderson
2009). Many such studies have focused on mass media coverage in the United
States, fnding that adherence to frst-order journalistic norms oI personalisation,
dramatisation and novelty, signifcantly infuenced the use oI second-order norms oI
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Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies 33(1): 4453 2012 Institute for Media Analysis in South Africa
authority (order and balance), and that this has led to poor coverage of climate change
(Boykoff and Boykoff 2007). Similarly, others (e.g. Boykoff 2007) have argued that
while in the United States (US) and the United Kingdom balanced reporting is no
longer evident and may act as a stronger catalyst for public pressure for more decisive
climate policy action, more reporting on the topic is not suIfcient to raise it on public
policy agendas.
In the US there has been episodic framing of climate change, which is most often
linked to major events or is personalised to focus on political actors. This informational
bias has allowed the US government to delay action and defer responsibility regarding
climate change (Boykoff and Boykoff 2007). Previous research has highlighted such
variable coverage, showing that the US media have provided relatively little discussion
of adaptation to climate change and instead concentrated on less radical mitigation
measures (Anderson 2009). Peaks in coverage in the 1980s were linked to important
policy events (e.g. the Kyoto Protocol in 1997), which generated a short-lived surge oI
interest.
Several studies Iocus on the issue-attention cycle oI reporting environmental issues
which, it is argued, has led to a decrease in coverage when climate change issues could
not sustain the status oI a dramatic crisis. These studies employed Dow`s issue-attention
cycle to explain the rise and fall of interest in climate change (see Newell 2000; Trumbo
1996), while others used news-Iraming theory to analyse media coverage (e.g. BoykoII
and Roberts 2007). McComas and Shanahan (1999) analysed print stories to show how
the media construct narratives which may infuence attention cycles.
Anderson (2009) raised further issues that may affect climate change coverage
in the mainstream media. Media corporate interests and advertisers interests may
discourage criticism of governments inaction or industrys role; journalists everyday
organisational routines and proIessional norms can impact coverage; and, fnally,
coverage is also affected by embedded cultural norms. Similarly, Carvalho (2007)
argues that in the British quality press, the discursive construction oI scientifc claims
is strongly liked to ideological standpoints.
Similar research studies have been conducted in the South African context, but
there have been few or no academic studies on climate change and the media in the rest
of the global South. There have, however, been a few media articles, mostly highlighting
developing world journalists poor understandings of the issues.
1
Cramer (2008), who
explored climate change coverage in three Western Cape newspapers the Cape Times,
Cape Argus and Die Burger found that coverage was most commonly framed in terms
of environmental impacts (such as rising sea levels). The second most popular frame
was political, with no human interest stories. Painter (2007) explored broadcasting and
found that SABC3s evening news had limited coverage of climate change, and that
coverage was linked to global media events.
Vogel (2009) analysed the relationship between business and climate change in
South AIrica. Her fndings suggest that the corporate sector is taking note oI climate
change, but that mitigation strategies are not yet as effective or widespread as they
need to be. Beg et al. (2002) place great emphasis on the plight of the poorest and most
marginalised people, who currently bear the brunt of the worlds environmental disasters
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and who, in the future, will be the worst affected by climate change. Developed countries
and their industrial sectors have played the biggest role in emitting unsustainable levels
oI greenhouse gas and in the large-scale destruction oI the natural environment, yet
they will not suffer the worst consequences of future climate change effects (Beg et al.
2002).
Titus (2010) found that the Cape Argus and Mail & Guardian consistently
covered issues pertaining to climate change, including events, technology, mitigation
and adaptation efforts, but that the Sunday Times dedicated less space to these issues,
instead focusing mainly on breaking news. Whereas the Mail & Guardian dedicated
consistently more space to environmental issues (including climate change), the Cape
Argus coverage peaked around specifc events. Despite the increased coverage oI
environmental issues, however, another study found that more than 70 per cent of
articles on climate change in the Mail & Guardian, over six months in 2009 and 2010,
were international, with no South African (or African) content.
2
Besides the wide range of studies utilising the methodology of content analysis,
a number of researchers have explored journalists knowledge of climate change, and
have argued that misinformation and ignorance are key factors in the coverage of these
issues. Wilson (2000) demonstrated notable gaps in American journalists knowledge of
climate change, while showing that there were high levels of knowledge and accuracy
in the reporting oI Iull-time science reporters. Similarly, Shanahan`s (2009) study oI
coverage in non-industrialised countries highlighted the problems Iacing reporters in
these countries, which include a lack of training, unsupportive editors, and limited
access to information and interviews. The complexity of the climate change story
makes coverage diIfcult Ior journalists with no or little science background, and acts
as a constraint to good reporting and greater public awareness and knowledge (Wilson
2000a). In New Zealand, however, Bell (1994) found stories to be 80 per cent accurate,
though some overstated the advance of climate change, or confused ozone depletion
with the greenhouse effect.
Despite the range oI media research studies, it is important to note that mass-media
coverage of climate change is a social relationship between scientists, policy actors and
the public that is mediated by news packages (Boykoff and Boykoff 2007). The role
oI political institutions, NGOs and the wider political culture as well as the scientifc
community are key players in defning current important issues (Anderson 2009).
The range of content analysis studies provides a good overview of the state of
media coverage, although most of these deal with mainstream newspapers in the North.
In general, the research reveals that media coverage of climate change tends to be
too sensational, technical or abstract to help people make connections between their
everyday actions and impending long-term global changes (Wilson 2000a). What
is missing is content analyses of broadcast or online media content, more detailled
newsroom engagement and qualitative research (which might include interviews with
editors, journalists and news sources), the role of global news agencies or international
comparative work, which will help researchers analyse broader socio-political issues in
the reporting of environmental affairs (Anderson 2009). Also needed is research on this
topic from and on the global South.
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The Internet and climate change
The Internet provides a range oI conficting claims about climate change and may thus
be a useful research site (Anderson 2009), particularly as journalists often name online
sources as their most important source of information (Harbinson et al. 2006). The
declining` infuence oI the newspaper press
3
and the growing use of the Internet and
mobile applications, particularly among the youth, are often cited as important trends
to keep in mind when analysing the role of the mass media (Dutton and Helsper 2007).
In South AIrica, the circulation fgures oI mainstream newspapers and magazines are
also decreasing,
4
while up to 60 per cent of mobile users can use their phones to surf
the Net.
5
During Hurricane Katrina, the communication networks of mainstream news
channels were affected, which compromised journalistic routines of fact checking. Vis
(2009) shows how, similarly, Wikinews coverage was restricted by its reluctance to
publish raw eyewitness reports. Thelwall and Stuart (2007), who explored the role
of new technologies in crisis events, found online forums and discussion boards to be
especially useful for sharing information in the initial stages of an event. However, while
there is a wide range of content analyses exploring print media coverage of climate
change and related environmental issues, there is little research on the role of online
journalism or social media vis--vis climate change reporting or science journalism.
Tweeting climate change
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging website that enables users
to send and read messages of up to 140 characters. Informally referred to as the SMS
of the Internet, users can group posts (referred to as tweets) by type or topic, using
words or phrases prefxed with a hashtag or a #` sign, re-tweet others` posts, or respond
directly and privately to other users.
The user base of Twitters over 200 million users
6
is predominantly located in
the US, but it is growing in Africa as more people access the Internet via their mobile
phones. Twitter is the 7
th
most accessed website in South Africa, with news organisations
Independent Online (IOL) and News24 Ieaturing in the Top 10 users to tweet most
often (Fuseware 2010). However, only 55 000 South Africans use Twitter (compared to
the 3.8 million who are on Facebook), though up to 40 per cent of tweets originate from
a mobile device.
7
In addition, South Africa is the tenth largest Twitter user in the world.
8
Twitter has been widely used for social activism, to the extent that the uprisings in
Iran, Moldova and, more recently, Egypt, have been referred to as Twitter revolutions
because of the role of the social networking service in spreading news locally among
protesters, as well as internationally. While updates are very short only 140 characters
the power of the update has been demonstrated in its capacity to mobilise large
numbers oI people Ior political action, to share health-related inIormation (Scanfeld et
al. 2010) or raise money for charity, or to share consumer opinions on brands (see, for
example, Jansen et al. 2009).
One oI the earliest uses oI a Twitter hashtag was environmental tracking wildfres
in CaliIornia in 2007 with #climate and #green becoming popular hashtags in the
Tanja Bosch Blogging and tweeting climate change in South Africa
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Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies 33(1): 4453 2012 Institute for Media Analysis in South Africa
US (Clark 2010). In South Africa, climate change tweets are sporadic. In general, the
periods when climate change was on the international agenda were accompanied by
a concurrent increase in tweets. For example, a number of users posted content that
related to COP15, the 2009 climate change talks in Copenhagen under the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
In general, coverage of climate change in the social media tends to subscribe to the
frst-order journalistic norm oI dramatisation, whereby news dramas emphasize crisis
over continuity, the present over the past or future and downplay complex policy
information, the workings of government institutions, and the bases of power behind
the central characters (Bennet 2002, 46).
More recent coverage of climate change on Twitter posts originating from South
Africa have dealt with the COP17 conference in Durban, South Africa, with some
journalists, such as estherclimate, posting links to their stories on the topic. Much of
the Twitter discussion and news updates on COP17 picked up on stories covered in the
mainstream print media, for instance the debate around whether South Africa would
be ready to host the event, and the fact that delegates at the previous two UN climate
change conferences, in Copenhagen (2009) and Cancun (2010), did not agree on a
legally binding treaty to reduce carbon emissions. Twitter users also commented on
economist Joseph Stiglitzs opinions, voiced at a talk in Pretoria, to the effect that South
Africa has the capacity to put itself at the forefront of developing countries in terms of
adapting to climate change, with leadership and buy-in Irom the business sector.
Other tweets reIerred to environmental issues such as the re-emergence oI the
debate around nuclear power in South Africa following the accident in Japan in 2011
and Shells exploration of natural gas (fracking) in the Karoo. Hydraulic fracturing,
also called fracking, is part of the process of extracting shale gas reserves from
underground rock formations.
In Iact, most South AIrican journalists tweet, amongst them Yolandi Groenewald,
environmental reporter at the Mail & Guardian (M&G), with most of her recent
posts accompanied by the hashtag COP17. Many tweets are, however, posted by
organisations such as EnvironmentSA, MarineWestEcology or The Climate Reality
Project. Others, posted by individuals, oIten tagged as #climatechange, are usually just
comments on extreme or unusual weather phenomena. In general, there appears to be
little understanding oI the diIIerences or links between weather patterns and long-term
climate change, or of the relationship between climate change and local communities.
Blogging climate change
The M&G online was launched in early 1994 as the frst South AIrican newspaper on
the Internet, and it is still one of the countrys three biggest news sites. The Thought
Leader blog site Ieatures opinion and analysis, allowing readers to submit their own
contributions and comment on others. While cell phones are increasingly important in
the South African context, it is the Internet in particular that has led to new types of
participation and democratic possibilities. Thoughtleader.com was originally intended
as a space Ior J-bloggers (i.e. journalists who blog), but later widened to include
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Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies 33(1): 4453 2012 Institute for Media Analysis in South Africa
any individual who could provide high-quality critical commentary on their areas oI
expertise by invitation only (Bosch 2010). This editorial group blog, which provides
commentary and analysis, aims
to provide a platIorm Ior thought-provoking opinion Irom M&G journalists and columnists, as
well as other writers, commentators, intellectuals and opinion makers across various industries
and political spectrums. Thought Leader is all about debate, oIIering readers the opportunity to
comment and discuss issues raised by contributors. (www.thoughtleader.co.za)
On Thought Leader blogs, most writers on topics related to climate change are
environmental activists. There are, for example, frequent posts by Danielle Nierenberg
of WorldWatch Institute, environmentalist Mike Baillie, and Peak Oil Perspectives an
environmental interest group. The patterns on the blogs are similar to the patterns on
Twitter, where a handful of interested or knowledgeable individuals and organisations
engage in public debate and discussion around issues relating to climate change, and
the focus is either on breaking news or bigger political stories. No stories were found
which covered either a human interest angle or focused on localising the bigger political
picture to show how climate change affects local communities.
A number oI posts made no specifc reIerence to climate change, although they
covered events occurring as a result of climate change, or other broader environmental
debates. The keywords climate change mitigation and adaptation were rarely used.
These environmental issues were also linked to the coverage in the mainstream print
media, and, for example, during the selected time period several blog posts covered
the controversial story of Shell Oil fracking in the Karoo, providing more detail than
was possible using Twitter. There was also coverage of environmental stories (such as
natural disasters) with little detail about their possible links to climate change.
Conclusion
As regards mainstream press coverage, online journalism and social media coverage
of climate change, the picture is much the same. Rarely is there any illustration of
the impacts climate change can have on a communitys environmental, personal and
political security. Climate change is usually covered as an environmental, economic
or political story in the print and social media. Few studies relate climate change to
broader development issues, government policies related to climate change, or its
impact on local communities. Climate change is thus seldom framed as the social or
political story that it is.
There is a dominance of English language in the mainstream print and social
media, and journalists might consider translating climate change stories into local
languages to reach wider audiences. Much like coverage in countries such as the
US (see Boykoff and Boykoff, 2007), South African print coverage tends to reject
stories that were previously reported; it overlooks underlying causes and long-term
consequences, which leads to an episodic framing of climate change news versus
placing stories in a broader thematic context. This trend has been shown to lead to
shallow understandings of political and social issues (Iyengar 1991) a practice which
is linked to issues concerning source selection, where authority fgures are most cited.
Tanja Bosch Blogging and tweeting climate change in South Africa
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Journalists in developing countries often rely on international news agencies, science
magazines and non-governmental organisations (Shanahan 2009).
While the analysis of print media coverage gives a good picture of mainstream
media coverage of issues related to climate change, the rise in online journalism and
social media particularly in Africa has to be taken into account. Twitter is used
by journalists to conduct research and to alert them to story ideas. They also use it to
tweet their own research and stories, therefore it cannot be ignored in the discussion
on climate change and journalism. While the short messages do not allow much room
Ior refection, they can raise issues in the public consciousness and create policy
agendas. Similarly, journalists` blogs on Thought Leader have the potential to provide
more nuanced discussions and explanations of climate change issues raised in the
mainstream press, in an online space that is potentially accessed by more readers, using
their mobile phones. However, unlike mainstream media, people can more carefully
select whom to follow on Twitter and in the blogosphere. It thus becomes critical
for South African journalists to make the climate change story about the development
of communities, politics and economics, instead of restricting it to the environmental
beat` where readers do not realise its broader signifcance.
Biographical note
Tanja Bosch is a senior lecturer in the Centre for Film and Media Studies at the University of
Cape Town, South Africa, where she teaches radio journalism, social media and qualitative research
methods. Her areas of research and publication include talk radio and democracy, community radio,
media and identity, and youth use oI mobile media. Email: tanja.boschuct.ac.za
Notes
1 See http://www.nature.com/climate/2008/0807/Iull/climate.2008.64.html
2 http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/15/60767.html
3 See e.g. http://stateoIthemedia.org/2011/mobile-survey/
4 http://allaIrica.com/stories/201005200065.html
5 http://www.southaIrica.inIo/business/trends/newbusiness/mobileinternet-270510.htm
6 http://www.itproportal.com/2010/11/01/twitter-user-base-reach-200-million-years-end/
7 http://lsdev.biz/the-truth-about-twitter-in-south-aIrica/
8 http://www.netage.co.za/resources/110-south-aIrica-tenth-on-twitter
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