Randolph Haluza-DeLay

Canadian News Media Coverage of Climate Change: Historical Trajectories, Dominant Frames, and International Comparisons

We examine climate change news coverage from 1997 to 2010 in two Canadian national newspapers: the Globe and Mail and the National Post. The following questions guide our analysis: Why did the volume of climate change coverage rise and fall during the period? Focusing on the key period of 2007–2008, what kinds of issue categories, thematic frames, and rhetorical frames dominate the news discourse? Canadian news coverage of climate change is characterized by a series of peaks and troughs, combined with an overall increase in coverage. The volume of coverage appears to be primarily driven by national and international political events, more than by changes to national or global carbon emissions, or by other ecological factors. The Canadian news discourse about climate change is dominated by themes of government responsibility, policymaking, policy measures for mitigation, and ways to mitigate climate change.

Conflicting Climate Change Frames in a Global Field of Media Discourse

Reducing global emissions will require a global cosmopolitan culture built from detailed attention to conflicting national climate change frames (interpretations) in media discourse. The authors analyze the global field of media climate change discourse using 17 diverse cases and 131 frames. They find four main conflicting dimensions of difference: validity of climate science, scale of ecological risk, scale of climate politics, and support for mitigation policy. These dimensions yield four clusters of cases producing a fractured global field. Positive values on the dimensions show modest association with emissions reductions. Data-mining media research is needed to determine trends in this global field.

Media Access and Political Efficacy in the Eco-politics of Climate Change: Canadian National News and Mediated Policy Networks

ABSTRACT We use a discourse network analysis approach to answer two questions about national news coverage of climate change policy debate in Canada during the period 2006–2010. First, what is the media visibility of actors relevant to policy development and advocacy on climate change? Second, given the political and economic context of climate policy-making in Canada, does greater or lesser media visibility reflect effectiveness in climate policy advocacy? Multiple interpretive frameworks characterize Canadian political discourse about climate change, with fragmentation between the federal government, opposition political parties, provincial governments, and environmental organizations. Contrary to expectations, environmental organizations had high levels of media visibility while the relative invisibility of fossil fuel corporations was notable in the media coverage of Canadian climate discussions. Our findings challenge optimistic accounts of the relationship between media power and political power, and suggest that media power does not necessarily translate to political efficacy.

Cannabis cultivation within a religious context: A case study of Ghomara in the Rif Mountain (Northern Morocco)

ABSTRACT To understand the relationship between Muslim religious attitudes and the growing/consumption of cannabis, we surveyed 251 residents and conducted interviews in Northern Morocco. The local population is Ghomarian, an ethnic group of Berber heritage that experienced socioeconomic marginalization. Cannabis is grown throughout the region, despite Islamic legal code (shari’a) that makes cannabis, like any substances that alter consciousness, illicit (haram). The survey aimed to gather (a) the perceptions of the local population toward the cultivation of cannabis and its consumption and (b) their attitudes and intention to abandon or to continue this activity despite its unlawful aspect under Islamic legislation (Shari’a). Qualitative interviews provide additional understanding of the rationales of people in the region about cannabis cultivation in the context of religion. The investigation revealed the complexity of how religious beliefs, socioeconomic marginalization, and immoral/illegal economic practices overlap and coexist in Ghomara Region (or in Northern Morocco).

Scale-Jumping and Climate Change in the Geography of Religion

This chapter discusses how religious responses to global climate change vary with regard to global, regional and local scales. Reactions are shown to be paradoxical and span from no action and disbelief to interfaith efforts geared to combat climate change. Moving from the macro to the micro the essay describes how the national scale is helpful for gauging broad policy initiatives among denominations, while congregations and individual adherents provide a more fluid medium for investigating the growing religious conflicts surrounding climate change. Drawing on scalar challenges such as ecological fallacy and emergence, we argues that there are potential solutions to bridging the massive jump in scale between an individual religious adherent and the planet, enabling the religious to jump scale, if only theologically, from individual lifestyle choices to collective global impact.