A Study on the Framing of Climate Change Stories in Tamil Regional Newspapers

Abstract

Environment and allied issues are gaining importance in the day to day affairs. With the increasing number of environmental issues and conflicts, much more attention is required both at the general public and governing ends. Especially climate change has become the most debatable issue in the recent times. In this juncture, media serves as the conduit in sharing the information knowledge between the two ends. This study tries to understand the role of regional print media in the representation of climate change. Structured on framing analysis method based on the Framing theory by Goffman, data is collected with the help of structured coding sheet. Stories on climate change that appeared in three prominent newspapers of Tamil Nadu Dinamalar, Dinamani and Daily Thanthi in the period of June – December 2019 have been taken as the sample of study. The findings suggested that most of the newspapers are focused on political frames and economic frames while less importance was given to scientific and responsibility frames. The study also identified that the news stories intensified the issue instead of informing and educating people on the same.