The Impact of Climate Change on Children and Childhood in Online News Media During 2019: A Framing Analysis
Climate change has become an increasingly urgent issue, with a growing body of research exploring its impact on children's emotional well-being and the broader concept of childhood. This thesis aimed to examine how online news outlets framed children and childhood in articles about climate change during the pivotal year of 2019. A framing analysis was conducted on 97 online news articles collected from the Factiva database, focusing on articles that mentioned psychological and emotional concepts related to climate distress, such as ecological anxiety, ecological grief, and solastalgia.
The analysis revealed three distinct frames: "climate change has fundamentally altered childhood," "children are developmentally unprepared," and "take children seriously." These frames presented contrasting perspectives on children's agency, vulnerability, and roles in the climate crisis, highlighting the complex and sometimes contradictory ways in which the media constructs notions of childhood. Frame 1 emphasised the dramatic shifts in the physical environment and how these changes have transformed the nature of childhood.
Frame 2 focused on children's cognitive and social development, suggesting that they lack the necessary skills and maturity to cope with the complexities of climate change. Frame 3 centred on the societal limitations placed on children's autonomy and agency, arguing that these restrictions contribute to the marginalisation of children's voices in the climate change discussion.
The findings underscore the importance of adopting a balanced and nuanced approach to understanding the impact of climate change on children and childhood. This thesis contributes to the existing body of knowledge on media representations of children and climate change by providing insights into the underlying assumptions, stereotypes, and discussions that influence the portrayal of children in the climate change debate. The study highlights the need for a critical examination of the values and assumptions underlying conceptions of childhood and calls for greater engagement with the diverse experiences and perspectives of children themselves in navigating the challenges posed by the climate crisis.