ARCHIVING CLIMATE CHANGE: HOW QUEBECOIS NEWS MEDIA REPORT CHANGEMENTS CLIMATIQUES

Abstract

This paper explores how Quebecois news media writes about climate change or changements climatiques. For my research, I created an archive of journalistic articles using the online web tool Media Cloud. I then analysed these articles and their comment sections, if present, to determine how they were framing climate change. The framing I found was overwhelmingly political, and also had a large focus on local stories. Articles about climate change also tended to occur in greater numbers corresponding with the dates of climate change conferences and elections. Comment sections tended to be most numerous on articles about international politics and articles containing more polarizing political content. Together, I argue that this is a result of journalists’ desire to connect with a local audience, the drive of online web algorithms influencing how people interact with content, and the lack of resources available to news media companies to moderate comment sections.