An Ecolinguistic Approach to the Framing of King Charles III’s Climate Change-Related Activities by the Leading American and British Media

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18485/philologia.2024.22.22.3

Keywords:

climate change discourse, ecolinguistics, framing, King Charles III, media and communication

Abstract

Building upon an ecolinguistic approach to climate change (Norton/Hulme 2019), the article presents a study that seeks to identify and analyse the way mainstream American and British mass media frame climate change-related activities by King Charles III, the current reigning British monarch, who is known for his active stance on the issue of climate change. In addition to the ecolinguistic framework, the methodology in the study was based upon the construal of framing in media discourse. The study sought to (i) identify the media frames in American and British media coverages of King Charles III’s climate change-related activities and (ii) discuss the frames through the lens of an ecolinguistic approach postulated by Norton and Hulme (2019). The study established that the leading American and British mass media framed King Charles III’s climate change-related activities via a similar set of frames, such (i) An Advocate for Climate Change Mitigation, (ii) A Challenge to Be Neutral on Climate Change, (iii) A Climate Change-Related Action, (iv) Money to Tackle Climate Change, (v) Renewable Energy, and (vi) Sustainability. The findings were further interpreted in the article through the prism of Norton and Hulme's (2019) ecolinguistic approach.

References

Boykoff, M. T. and R. S. Rajan. 2007. Signals and Noise: Mass-media Coverage of Climate Change in the USA and the UK. EMBO Reports 8(3), 207–211. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.embor.7400924

Carta, C. and R. Wodak. 2015. Discourse Analysis, Policy Analysis, and the Borders of EU Identity. Journal of Language and Politics 14(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.14.1.01car

Carvalho, A. 2007. Ideological Cultures and Media Discourses on Scientific Knowledge: Rereading News on Climate Change. Public Understanding of Science 16(2), 223–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662506066775

Castle, S. 2023. King Charles III, Climate Advocate, Delivers Speech at Odds with His Beliefs. [Internet]. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/07/world/europe/kings-speech-charles-uk.html [01.10.2024].

Coleman, R. et al. 2024. Reaching Science Sceptics: How Adaptive Framing of Climate Change Leads to Positive Responses via Persuasion Knowledge and Perceived Behavioral Control. Communication Research 51(4), 392–414. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502221084925

Cornwell, A. 2023. Britain’s King Charles Urges Rapid Environmental Repair in COP28 Speech. [Internet]. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/world/britains-kingcharles-push-global-action-climate-cop28-speech-2023-12-01/ [01.10.2024].

Crawford-Smith, J. 2023. How King Charles III Has Become a Target for Climate Change Protesters. [Internet]. Available at: https://www.newsweek.com/king-charlestarget-climate-change-protest-1815716 [01.10.2024].

Döring, M. 2017. Media Reports about Natural Disasters: An Ecolinguistic Perspective. In A. F. Fill and H. Penz (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Ecolinguistics. London: Routledge, 293–308. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315687391

Entman, R. M. 1993. Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm. Journal of Communication 43(4), 51–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01304.x

Entman, R. M. 2010. Framing Media Power. In P. D’Angelo and J. A. Kuypers (eds.) Doing News Framing Analysis. New York: Routledge, 347–371.

Fløttum, K. 2019. A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective on Climate Change Discourse. In I. Simonnæs, Ø. Andersen and K. Schubert (eds.) New Challenges for Research on Language for Special Purposes. Berlin: Frand & Timme, 21–37.

Fløttum, K., D. Gasper and A. L. S. Clair. 2016. Synthesizing a Policy-Relevant Perspective from the Three IPCC “Worlds” — A Comparison of Topics and Frames in the SPMs of the Fifth Assessment Report. Global Environmental Change 38, 118–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.03.007

Fløttum, K. and Ø. Gjerstad. 2017. Narratives in Climate Change Discourse. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 8(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.429

Gavin, N. T., L. Leonard-Milsom and J. Montgomery. 2011. Climate Change, Flooding and the Media in Britain. Public Understanding of Science 20(3), 422–438. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662509353377

Gillings, M. and C. Dayrell. 2024. Climate Change in the UK Press: Examining Discourse Fluctuation over Time. Applied Linguistics 45(1), 111–133. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amad007

Good, J. E. 2008. The Framing of Climate Change in Canadian, American, and International Newspapers: A Media Propaganda Model Analysis. Canadian Journal of Communication 33(2), 233–256. https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2008v33n2a2017

Hale, T. 2024. Long Problems: Climate Change and the Challenge of Governing across Time. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Hulme, M. and J. Turnpenny. 2004. Understanding and Managing Climate Change: the UK Experience. Geographical Journal 170(2), 105–115. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0016-7398.2004.00112.x

Jacobo, J. 2023. This Is Why Charles III Will Be Known As the 1st Climate King. [Internet]. Available at: https://abcnews.go.com/International/charles-iii-1st-climate-kingexperts/story?id=89749798 [01.10.2024].

Kalajžić, V., M. Ražnjević Zdrilić and D. Jontes. 2022. Between Denial and Celebritization: Online Media Coverage of Climate Change in Slovenia and Croatia. Medijska istraživanja: znanstveno-Stručni časopis za novinarstvo i medije 28(1), 31–53. https://doi.org/10.22572/mi.28.1.2

Kapranov, O. 2015a. Conceptual Metaphors in Ukrainian Prime Ministers’ Discourse Involving Renewables. Topics in Linguistics 16(1), 4–16. https://doi.org/10.2478/topling-2015-0007

Kapranov, O. 2015b. Do International Corporations Speak in One Voice on the Issue of Global Climate Change: The Case of British Petroleum and The Royal Dutch Shell Group. In C. Can, A. Kilimci and K. Papaja (eds.) Social Sciences and Humanities: A Global Perspective. Ankara: Detay Yayıncılık, 306–322.

Kapranov, O. 2016. The Framing of Serbia’s EU Accession by the British Foreign Office on Twitter. Tekst i Dyskurs — Text und Diskurs 9(9), 67–80.

Kapranov, O. 2017. The Framing of Climate-Change Discourse by Shell and the Framing of Shell’s Climate Change-Related Activities by the Economist and the Financial Times. Bergen Language and Linguistics Studies 7, 55–69. https://doi.org/10.15845/bells.v7i0.1088

Kapranov, O. 2018a. Conceptual Metaphors Associated with Climate Change. In R. Augustyn and A. Mierzwinska-Hajnos (eds.) New Insights into the Language and Cognition Interface. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 51–66.

Kapranov, O. 2018b. Shell’s Image of Climate Change and Its Representations in the British Financial Press. In G. E. Garzone and W. Giordano (eds.) Discourse, Communication and the Enterprise: Where Business Meets Language. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 392–409.

Kapranov, O. 2018c. The Framing of an EFL Primary School Teacher’s Identity by Norwegian Pre-Service Primary School Teachers. Konińskie Studia Językowe 6(3), 329–351.

Kapranov, O. 2022. The Syntax of Climate Change: Syntactic Means in the Construction of Greta Thunberg’s Community Identity on Facebook. Studia UBB Philologia 67(4), 15–33. https://doi.org/10.24193/subbphilo.2022.4.01

Kapranov, O. 2023. Throwing Soup at Van Gogh: The Framing of Art in Climate Change Activism by British Mass Media. Discourses on Culture 19(1), 175–200. https://doi.org/10.2478/doc-2023-0008

Kapranov, O. 2024. Self-Mentions in Climate Change Discourse by King Charles III. Journal of Contemporary Philology 7(1), 29–46. https://doi.org/10.37834/JCP2471029k

Kennedy, W. 2023. King Charles Urges Action to Slow World’s Descent into Danger. [Internet]. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-01/king-charles-urges-action-to-slow-world-s-descent-into-danger [01.10.2024].

Koteyko, N. and D. Atanasova. 2016. Metaphor and the Representation of Scientific Issues: Climate Change in Print and Online Media. In E. Semino and Z. Demjén (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Metaphor and Language. London: Routledge, 314–326.

Kwaśniewska, M. 2024. Between Nature and Culture: Ecolinguistics in the Context of Climate Discussion. Leiden: Brill.

LeVasseur, T. 2015. Defining “Ecolinguistics?”: Challenging Emic Issues in an Evolving Environmental Discipline. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences 5, 21–28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-014-0198-4

Lorenzoni, I. et al. 2006. Cross-National Comparisons of Image Associations with “Global Warming” and “Climate Change” among Laypeople in the United States of America and Great Britain. Journal of Risk Research 9(03), 265–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669870600613658

Ma, C. and A. Stibbe. 2022. The Search for New Stories to Live By: A Summary of Ten Ecolinguistics Lectures Delivered by Arran Stibbe. Journal of World Languages 8(1), 164–187. https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2021-0031

Mishra, S. 2023. King Charles Tells Cop28 Summit “Hope of the World” Rests on Dubai Climate Talks. [Internet]. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/climatechange/news/king-charles-cop28-speech-dubai-b2456659.html [01.10.2024].

Nerlich, B. and R. Jaspal. 2024. Mud, Metaphors and Politics: Meaning-Making during the 2021 German Floods. Environmental Values 33(3), 329–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/09632719231177511

Norton, C. and M. Hulme. 2019. Telling One Story, or Many? An Ecolinguistic Analysis of Climate Change Stories in UK National Newspaper Editorials. Geoforum 104, 114–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.01.017

Nugent, C. 2022. Climate Change Could Strain Relations Between King Charles III and U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss. [Internet]. Available at: https://time.com/6212796/kingcharles-iii-climate-change-liz-truss/ [01.10.2024].

Penz, H. and A. Fill. 2022. Ecolinguistics: History, Today, and Tomorrow. Journal of World Languages 8(2), 232–253. https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2022-0008

Quinn, S. 2023. How King Charles Can Make Himself Relevant. [Internet]. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/01/king-charles-climatechange-environment/ [01.10.2024].

Robbins, D. 2018. Game of Frames: The Competition to Establish the Dominant Framing of Climate Change among Journalists, Ministers and Political Advisors. Dublin: Dublin City University.

Scheuch, E. G. et al. 2024. The Power of Protest in the Media: Examining Portrayals of Climate Activism in UK News. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 11(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2022-0008

Sherwood, H. 2024. “A Real Pioneer”: King Charles Seeks to Embody Green Values in Royal Estate. [Internet]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/27/king-charles-royal-family-bentleys-green-sustainabilityenvironment [01.10.2024].

Steel, D., K. Mintz-Woo and T. DesRoches. 2024. Collapse, Social Tipping Dynamics, and Framing Climate Change. Politics, Philosophy & Economics 23(3), 230–251. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470594X231196432

Stibbe, A. 2004. Environmental Education across Cultures: Beyond the Discourse of Shallow Environmentalism. Language & Intercultural Communication 4(4), 242–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708470408668875

Stibbe, A. 2014. An Ecolinguistic Approach to Critical Discourse Studies. Critical Discourse Studies 11(1), 117–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2013.845789

Stibbe, A. 2015. Ecolinguistics: Language, Ecology and the Stories We Live by. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315718071

Stibbe, A. 2021. Ecolinguistics as a Transdisciplinary Movement and a Way of Life. In A. Burkette and T. Warhol (eds.) Crossing Borders, Making Connections: Interdisciplinarity in Linguistics. Berlin: De Gruyter, 71–88. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501514371

Stickel, M.-T. 2020. Long May He (not) Reign? Literary Depictions of a “Meddling” Future Monarch. In C. Jordan and I. Polland (eds.) Realms of Royalty. New Directions in Researching Contemporary European Monarchies. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 149–168.

Strauss, N. et al. 2024. Reporting on the 2019 European Heatwaves and Climate Change: Journalists’ Attitudes, Motivations and Role Perceptions. In R. E. Gutsche, Jr. and J. Pinto (eds.) Journalism and Reporting Synergistic Effects of Climate Change. London: Routledge, 226–249. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032627526

Voice of America. 2022. The Green King: Charles the Environmentalist. [Internet]. Available at: https://www.voanews.com/a/the-green-king-charles-theenvironmentalist-/6739925.html [01.10.2024].

Weathers, M. R. and B. E. Kendall. 2016. Developments in the Framing of Climate Change as a Public Health Issue in US Newspapers. Environmental Communication 10(5), 593–611. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2015.1050436

Wright, C. and D. Nyberg. 2022. The Roles of Celebrities in Public Disputes: Climate Change and the Great Barrier Reef. Journal of Management Studies 59(7), 1788–1816. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12800

Žagar, I. 2010. Topoi in Critical Discourse Analysis. Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 6(1), 3–27. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10016-010-0002-1

Žagar, I. 2017. Fallacies: Do We “Employ” Them or “Commit” Them? The Case of DiscourseHistorical Approach. Solsko Polje 28(1/2), 151–202.

Downloads

Published

24-12-2024

How to Cite

Kapranov, O. (2024). An Ecolinguistic Approach to the Framing of King Charles III’s Climate Change-Related Activities by the Leading American and British Media. Philologia, 22(1), 53–73. https://doi.org/10.18485/philologia.2024.22.22.3

Issue

Section

Nauka o jeziku/Linguistics