title: A changing climate of skepticism: The factors shaping climate change coverage in the US press.
abstract: Skepticism toward climate change has a long tradition in the United States. We focus on mass media as the conveyors of the image of climate change and ask: Is climate change skepticism still a characteristic of US print media coverage? If so, to what degree and in what form? And which factors might pave the way for skeptics entering mass media debates? We conducted a quantitative content analysis of US print media during one year (1 June 2012 to 31 May 2013). Our results show that the debate has changed: fundamental forms of climate change skepticism (such as denial of anthropogenic causes) have been abandoned in the coverage, being replaced by more subtle forms (such as the goal to avoid binding regulations). We find no evidence for the norm of journalistic balance, nor do our data support the idea that it is the conservative press that boosts skepticism.
authors.affiliation: University of Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schmid-Petri
authors.affiliation: University of Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Adam
authors.affiliation: University of Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ivo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Schmucki
authors.affiliation: University of Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Häussler
mesh_terms: D057231:Climate Change; D020452:Journalism; D008402:Mass Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011639:Public Opinion; D014481:United States
keywords: United States; climate change skepticism; content analysis; global climate change; mass media