James Painter on climate change coverage
An article about events at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17) at Leadership Online, South Africa (15 February, 2012) includes a comment from James Painter of Oxford Universitys Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism on media coverage of climate change issues.
The article quotes James recent study on the large amount of coverage of sceptical voices on climate change in newspapers in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Although they represent a tiny minority of the scientific community, the fair and balanced approach in journalism has translated in legitimacy for denialist views as scientifically credible and legitimate.
James also presents strong evidence for a close correspondence between the prevalence of sceptical voices and the political ideology or leaning of a newspaper.
