Media Agenda Analysis of Global Issue in Political Campaign: News Coverage on Climate Issues in American Presidential Election of the New York Times

Key words: US election, climate issues, source analysis, framework theory

Abstract:

Climate change is one of the hot topics in the US presidential election in recent years. Candidates' advocacy and response to the election issues is an important way to win the support of voters and achieve the election goals. This paper adopts the method of content analysis, and analyzes 234 reports on climate issues in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 US presidential elections in the New York Times from the perspective of source analysis and framework theory. It is found that during the election, although the Republican candidates occupy a large proportion of the source space of the New York Times, but the propaganda framework in the "policy response" of Democratic candidates is the main reporting framework of the New York Times. In the climate issues reported by the New York Times election, the Democratic Party actually has a greater discourse advantage.

Published in Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication, Issue 04, 2016

Author:

Zhong Xin, Professor, PhD supervisor, School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University of China; Researcher, Research Center of Journalism and Social Development, Renmin University of China.

Tang Xuan, PhD student, School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University of China.