The Australian mainstream media publishes a “substantial amount” of articles critical of the scientific consensus on climate change, says a report from the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism. The report has found that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp publications have a high rate of climate change scepticism, which leaves a large section of Australia without information on climate change science.
The Australian Centre for Independent Journalism published part two of the Sceptical Climate report on October 31. The report analysed data from hundreds of newspaper articles published in Australia over two three-month periods, one in 2011 and one in 2012.
The key findings of the report show a twisted state of affairs. About 97% of climate scientists believe that human actions contribute to climate change. Yet about a third of the articles published in Australian mainstream newspapers did not accept that humans are big contributors to global warming.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp publications delivered the worst coverage of climate change. News Corp owns 70% of print media in Australia and owns the Australian, the Herald Sun, the Courier Mail and the Daily Telegraph. Murdoch’s views on climate change science and policy are no secret; after Tony Abbott was elected prime minister the media magnate expressed glee on Twitter over the defunding of the Climate Council and the imminent attacks on the carbon price.
The report also found there had been an almost 20% drop in the number of articles “referencing climate science” in the year between the first and second three-month periods.
There was also a marked difference in coverage of climate science across different locations and demographics. Western Australia and the Northern Territory received less print news about climate change than other states. The West Australian, Perth’s only metropolitan newspaper, averaged one article with a significant reference to climate change every three weeks during the surveyed period. In the Northern Territory, the NT News averaged one article with a significant reference to climate change every five weeks.
There was also a significant difference in the coverage in publications targeted at people with different income levels. Publications targeting people with a higher income and education level, such as the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Australian, published more feature articles on climate change. Feature articles are more likely to use more sources and include more perspectives.
The Herald Sun in Melbourne had the highest proportion of commentary articles (81% of their total number of words covering climate science). Commentary articles are rarely written by scientists, and of the comment articles on climate science in the Herald Sun, 97% questioned the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change.
The high ratio of commentary articles in the Herald Sun compared to news or features and their content reflects the prominence of notorious climate change denier Andrew Bolt. The Sceptical Climate report found that Bolt wrote “more than a third (36%) of all articles in News Corp tabloids that either questioned or rejected the [scientific] consensus position”. Bolt is one of the most adamant and prominent climate change sceptics in Australia and has repeatedly used marginal and questionable information to attack the scientific consensus on climate change.
Since the report has been published, Bolt, a favoured sceptic of Murdoch, has gone on the attack. The author of the report, Wendy Bacon, and the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism have been accused of “betraying journalism”.
As the report reflects, Bolt is just one rotten voice that “needs to be considered in the context of a broader international game played out with other media, politicians, climate sceptics and audiences”. However, it is Australia’s incredibly high concentration of media ownership in the hands of a few corporations that allows particular voices and opinions to dominate the media landscape with little variation.
Climate change has been a contentious political issue in Australia for years. Politicians and the mainstream media continue to play tug of war over ineffective and market driven “solutions” to the crisis.
But all the while, people and the environment are suffering. Around the world, changing temperatures and extreme weather are ravaging communities. A disproportionate effect is being felt by the poor who are being driven from their homes and left with little or nothing to support them.
The Sceptical Climate report shows that corporate interests are shaping the debate and consciousness around climate change in Australia.
News on climate change has come to resemble a debate on its reality, rather than a serious consideration of how we can work together to avert global catastrophe.
By attacking the scientific basis for our understanding of the changing climate, the corporate media is undermining movements to change current patterns of production and consumption away from the path to environmental destruction.
[The entire report can be read here.]