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Media discourse on the climate slowdown

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

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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.

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  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

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Correspondence to Maxwell T. Boykoff.

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

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