Obraz změn klimatu v českých denících v letech 1997–2010
Obraz změn klimatu v českých denících v letech 1997–2010

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with daily print media coverage of climate change in the Czech Republic in time period 1997–2010. Together 5663 articles from six countrywide daily newspapers, including four prestige-press, one tabloid and one political party affiliated newspapers, were chosen for the content analysis focused on the intensity of media coverage. Several categories were also observed, with special attention to the quality of information and its possible consequences. This study is the first long-term content analysis of media depiction of climate change in the Czech news. The results show that intensity of media attention in the Czech newspapers is similar to other EU or US daily newspapers. Regarding the observed categories, the articles in Czech papers mostly do not refer to scientific sources of information, focus more on the natural issues than social ones and equally link the climate change topics to the Czech Republic and global issues. Most of the articles can be labelled as catastrophic or sensational, only 11% of them are serious, i.e. not stressing the sensation or catastrophes and referring to some source of information. With respect to this problematic quality of information we discuss previous studies dealing with the effect of information form on the recipients. Despite the fact, that people perceive the media in various ways, some studies show that catastrophic messages can increase the climate scepticism and undermine the willingness to act in some mitigation processes. We argue that the style of media coverage can influence public perception of climate change, which could partially explore, why the Czech population belongs to those more sceptical among the EU.

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