National print media vs. agricultural trade publications: communicating the 2012 Midwestern US drought

The 2012 Midwestern US drought resulted in major impacts to farmers and the public. Extreme events like drought will continue in the future due to climate change. We studied how the elite national press— New York Times ( NYT ) and Wall Street Journal ( WSJ )—covered the 2012 Midwestern drought, how...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Climatic change 2020-07, Vol.161 (1), p.43-63
Main Authors: Church, Sarah P., Bentlage, Belyna, Weiner, Roberta, Babin, Nicholas, Bulla, Brian R., Fagan, Katelyn, Haigh, Tonya, Carlton, J. Stuart, Prokopy, Linda S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric Sciences
ATP
Climate
Climate and weather
Climate change
Climate change causes
Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts
Communication
Drought
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Extreme weather
Farms
Recovery
Risk communication
Risk perception
Weather
Weather conditions
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Summary:The 2012 Midwestern US drought resulted in major impacts to farmers and the public. Extreme events like drought will continue in the future due to climate change. We studied how the elite national press— New York Times ( NYT ) and Wall Street Journal ( WSJ )—covered the 2012 Midwestern drought, how climate change was addressed, and how NYT and WSJ articles differed from each other and agricultural trade publication (ATP) article coverage before, during, and after the drought. A previous study found that ATP articles emphasized short-term drought recovery efforts. We suggest this emphasis was exacerbated by how drought and climate change were reported in the national media. Few articles discussed climate change in all publication types. Most articles that did cover climate change did not attribute a cause; however, over half of NYT articles mentioned human-caused climate change. WSJ and ATP articles had more content similarities than NYT articles. Overall, climate change discussions in all publication types were related to personal impacts. Climate change reporting in the WSJ and NYT was broad. ATP climate change reporting related to weather conditions in relation to farm resilience. Focusing on impacts and recovery may have attenuated risk perceptions. We contend that communication should recognize human-caused climate change and increased likelihood of weather extremes.
ISSN:0165-0009
1573-1480
DOI:10.1007/s10584-019-02630-3