Lessons from Media-Centered Climate Change Literature

Abstract

Climate change has become a global challenge over the years and the media has played an important part in the dissemination of information, research on which constitutes a substantial body of scientific literature. This study aimed to map media-centered climate change articles to highlight the relevant lessons within the field. The lessons learned are as follows. (1) Two environmental communication journals are the primary publication venues that prioritize climate change-focused articles. (2) Media-centered climate change literature peaked in 2020, and (3) many countries attracted scholarly interest. (4) Newspapers were examined more than any other media form. (5) The first authors of media-centered climate change articles are westerners. (6) Almost 50% of media-centered climate change articles did not adopt a theory. (7) Quantitative and (8) content analysis methods are the most adopted data collection methods. (9) Finally, this review shows that communication and media scholars are most interested in media-centered climate change articles.