Humans began to acknowledge environmental issues on a broader scale about 1968, when key UN organs began to pay serious attention to the problem for the first time. Over the years, climate change has progressed from a theoretical concept to an almost undeniable reality, proven to be real by science. However, not everyone acknowledges climate change as a legitimate or high-priority issue. Ongoing discussions surrounding the topic have led to various agreements aimed at addressing and mitigating environmental challenges throughout the years. (Jackson, 2007) The latest worldwide endeavour to reach a consensus to address climate change ended on December 13th 2023, which was the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, in short the COP28. (Poynting, 2023) One of the news outlets that gave negative feedback over the outcome of this conference was FoxNews. (Peek, 2023) This essay will offer a concise overview of the COP28 before delving into the significance of the framing, selectivity, ideology and the anti-public sphere, in how the COP28 is presented by the article in FoxNews and other online platforms.
Summary:
The COP is a series of international meetings where countries come together to discuss and collaborate on addressing climate change. The latest conference was COP28 held in the United Arab Emirates, where around 200 nations attended. The countries managed to agree on the need to ‘transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems’, which was a huge step. There is however no call to action or specific deadline in the agreements. The assessment of the conference’s success remains a topic of widespread discussion. Opinions vary, some also argue that the conference fell short, claiming that the steps taken are insufficient to meaningfully address and prevent the adverse impacts of climate change and others deem the conference a significant success. On the flip side, there are also some media that express concerns about the high costs of the agreed-upon actions. (Poynting, 2023) FoxNews has published an article which is clearly states to be unhappy with the ‘costly climate promises’. The article discusses the drawbacks and implications of the COP28 outcome for the US. (Peek, 2023)
Framing and selectivity:
The article makes use of selectivity and framing to make their standpoint more convincing. Media are often selective in what they tell about an event. The effects of this are rather obvious, as put by the article The Media as Definers of Social Reality:
‘if these images and information are selective and partial, then our images and information will also be selective and partial.’ (Bennett, 1977, p. 13)
Selectivity can be exposed with various tactics. For the FoxNews article the most relevant strategy is to take a look at the media coverage of a controversial issue and examine if media fully covers the full spectrum of expert opinions and arguments in society on the subject. (Bennett, 1977, p. 13-25) FoxNews only looks at statistics and quotes that prove that the agreements made in the conference are costly and that making agreements to no longer use oil, gas and coal, might not even be effective enough to mitigate climate change. This does not represent the complete overview of the COP28, as there are also many statistics and experts that provide a urge to take action for the climate crises, giving the outcome of the conference a more positive view. This latter view is however completely neglected in the article. (Peek, 2023)
Besides selecting certain parts of information to cover, media also put the information in a certain framework, providing the public with a certain perspective on them. Robert Entman has a systematic methodology to analyze framing in media by five different categories. The most prominent category relevant for analyzing the article is categorization, which labels media events in a certain way. (Bennett, 1977, p. 25-36) In the headline of the article: ‘COP28 climate conference is not just the Super Bowl of virtue signaling. It’s doing real damage’ is clear categorization present. The headline categorizes the conference as ‘virtue signaling’, implying that there are no real good intentions, and ‘damaging’, implying that there is no
good outcome of the conference. This completely ignores the other categories the conference could be placed in, like ‘profitable for the environment’. (Peek, 2023) Overall there is a clear presence of selectivity and framing in this article, providing the reader with a certain perspective on the conference. While the article criticizes the agreements to commit to phasing out fossil fuels and highlights rising electricity prices, it downplays the importance of such commitment in addressing climate change.
Ideology:
The perspective that is put forwards by a news outlet most of the times aligns with their ideology. The same goes for the article on the COP28, the conservative ideology of FoxNews determines their negative look at the outcome of this conference. (Peek, 2023) There is no specific definition of ideology, but in general an ideology provides a worldview shapes how people perceive the world and how they act in it. J.B.Thompson defined analyzing ideology as: ‘to study ideology is to study the ways in which meaning serves to sustain relations of domination.’ (Thompson, 1988, p. 370)
The news article clearly tries to shape the public’s perception to support a certain power relation. Namely, at the time of the article Biden, a member of the left-winged democratic party in the United States, is in power. The article however clearly favors a more conservative ideology, that is represented by the right-winged conservative party. (Peek, 2023)
The article strategically employs fragmentation as a tool to push forwards a conservative ideology, pitting what it labels as “extreme climate alarmism” associated with the Biden administration against the so called ‘rational’ individuals advocating less actions to save the climate. This intentional division oversimplifies the complex issue of climate change, forcing readers into a binary thought process, leaving little room for middle-ground considerations. This favors the conservative ideology that is brought forward by the article. (Thompson, 1988) (Peek, 2023)
The story creates a specific narrative about the COP28 and Biden’s involvement, which pushes this fragmentation. (Thompson, 1988) The article consistently portrays the conference as moral display, downplaying the urgency to take action against global warming. On top of that it criticizes the climate policies that Biden has agreed to as ‘wrong-headed’ and ‘costly’. By using such negative terms, the article seeks to influence the public opinion against the current administration which holds a more progressive ideology, and thereby pushing forwards the conservative ideology. (Peek, 2023)
Overall the article tries to push a certain narrative about the COP28 to support a more conservative ideology. It manages to achieve that by belittling the actions of Biden, who handles from a more progressive ideology.
Anti-public sphere
Not only news outlets provide a negative view on the COP28, but also all people on online platforms contribute to this view. When people take their opinions to online platforms the discussion around a topic can turn into an anti-public sphere. Ideas that once might have been unacceptable are now normalized. The diversity of topics on the internet allows individuals to find content that aligns with their existing viewpoints. Therefore they become more familiar with once controversial opinion. (Davis, 2021) An example is shown in the image, which is a screenshot of Twitter. This shows a tweet of a user that does not believe in climate change and is therefore unhappy with the decision of the COP28 to ‘ban’ fossil fuels. (Tisha, 2023) A hundred years back more controversial opinions like this would have been harder to find and research. However, in contemporary society it is a common thing to discredit research, deny statistics and support conspiracy theories. This creates an anti-public sphere, where articles like the one on FoxNews are encouraged instead of opposed. Scholarly articles and proper statistics are however more often ignored. In general, the rise of online platforms is not positive for fighting climate change.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the article published on FoxNews clearly presents the results of the COP28 as costly and unnecessary, which damages the economy of the United States. It completely ignores the necessity to mitigate climate change as fast as possible. The COP28 is presented in such a negative way through the use of framing and selectivity. The way the article is
written pushes forward a more conservative ideology, neglecting important arguments from the progressive ideologies. Generally this article cannot be seen as objective media to get an complete overview of the needs and implications on the policies made at the COP28. Besides the article, there are also people highlighting the negative effects of the COP28 on online platforms. This creates an anti-public sphere and more interest in articles like the one of FoxNews. In conclusion, there are a lot of sources that provide a negative view on the conference.
References:
- Bennett, T. (1977) The Media as Definers of Social Reality.
- Davis, M. (2021) The online anti-public sphere. European Journal of Cultural Studies.
- Thompson, J. B. (August, 1988) Mass Communication and Modern Culture: Contribution to a Critical Theory of Ideology.
- Jackson, P. (June, 2007) From Stockholm to Kyoto: A Brief History of Climate Change. UN Chronicle. Available at:
https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/stockholm-kyoto-brief-history-climate-change - Peek, L. (Dec 5, 2023) COP28 climate conference is not just the Super Bowl of virtue signaling. It’s doing real damage. FoxNews. Available at:
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/cop28-climate-conference-just-super-bowl-virtuesignaling-real-damage - Poynting, M. (Dec 12, 2023) What was agreed on climate change at COP28 in Dubai. BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67143989
- Tisha (Dec 14, 2023) Twitter. Available at: https://twitter.com/TishaLee777/status/1735116242028319152