Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Media discourse on the climate slowdown

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 156–158 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

We must not fall victim to decontextualized and ahistorical media accounting of climate trends.

In August 1968, protestors from the Students for a Democratic Society — an activist movement in the United States — repeatedly hurled the phrase 'the whole world is watching' outside the hotel in Chicago where the Democratic National Convention was being held. As Columbia University professor Todd Gitlin later documented in a book1 titled by the same phrase, media coverage of the clashes accompanying the refrain then served to draw wider visibility to their antiwar activities and claims. He found that implications from the media representations were twofold: first, coverage largely framed the protests as a fringe action promoted by marginalized actors; however, second, the increased media coverage of the Students for a Democratic Society actions actually boosted awareness and bolstered member enrolments in the student-led movement.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Rent or Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

from$8.99

Rent or Buy

All prices are NET prices.

References

  1. 1

    Gitlin, T. The Whole World is Watching (Univ. California Press, 1980).

    Google Scholar 

  2. 2

    Hajer, M. in The Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and Policymaking (eds Fisher, F. & Forester, J.) 45–46 (Duke Univ. Press, 1993).

    Google Scholar 

  3. 3

    Carter, B. There IS a problem with global warming... it stopped in 1998. The Telegraph (9 April 2006); http://go.nature.com/D9CSlh

  4. 4

    Kosaka, Y. & Xi, S-P. Recent global-warming hiatus tied to equatorial Pacific surface cooling. Nature 501, 403–407 (2013).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. 5

    Hansen, J., Sato, M. & Ruedy, R. Global temperature update through 2012. (15 January 2013); http://go.nature.com/loo2Iv

  6. 6

    Balmaseda, M. A., Trenberth, K. E. & Källén, E. Distinctive climate signals in reanalysis of global ocean heat content. Geophys. Res. Lett. 40, 1754–1759 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. 7

    Hall, S. Representation: Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices (Sage, 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  8. 8

    Luntz, F. The Environment: A Cleaner, Safer, Healthier America 131–146 (The Luntz Research Companies, Straight Talk, 2003).

    Google Scholar 

  9. 9

    Naming Global Warming (ActionMedia, 2005).

  10. 10

    Hilgartner, S. & Bosk, C. L. The rise and fall of social problems: a public arenas model. Am. J. Sociol. 94, 53–78 (1988).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. 11

    Ogburn, S. P. How media pushed climate change 'pause' into the mainstream. Energy and Environment Daily (4 November 2013); http://go.nature.com/3rxT35

  12. 12

    Morano, M. UK Daily Mail: 'Global warming stopped 16 years ago' according to UK Met Office 'quietly released' report — 'Pause' in warming lasted about same time as when temps rose, 1980 to 1996. (Climate Depot, 13 October 2012); http://go.nature.com/T9opcu

  13. 13

    Lloyd, G. IPCC head Pachauri acknowledges global warming standstill. Global Warming Policy Foundation (23 February 2013); http://go.nature.com/rnQLMt

  14. 14

    Pappas, S. Climate change disbelief rises in America. LiveScience (16 January 2014); http://go.nature.com/ki1Dma

  15. 15

    Mooney, C. Global-warming denial hits a 6-year high. Mother Jones (17 January 2014); http://go.nature.com/TvkUsz

  16. 16

    Boykoff, M. & Olson, S. Wise contrarians' in contemporary climate science–policy–public interactions. Celebrity Stud. 4, 276–291 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. 17

    Brulle, R. J. Institutionalizing delay: foundation funding and the creation of US climate change counter-movement organizations. Climatic Change http://doi.org/f2pdbh (2013).

  18. 18

    Delacourt, S. Putting on and taking off that election face. Toronto Star (7 December 2005).

  19. 19

    The Hindustan Times An ecological disaster waiting to happen. The Hindustan Times (24 October 2010).

Download references

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Maxwell T. Boykoff is at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), Center for Science and Technology Policy Research (CSTPR), UCB 488 CIRES CSTPR, University of Colorado, 1333 Grandview Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA

    Maxwell T. Boykoff

Authors
  1. Maxwell T. Boykoff
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maxwell T. Boykoff.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Boykoff, M. Media discourse on the climate slowdown. Nature Clim Change 4, 156–158 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2156

Download citation

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing