Persistence of Scepticism in Media Reporting on Climate Change: The Case of British Newspapers

This paper explores the persistence of scepticism in British newspapers’ narratives around climate change. It is based on 958 news articles collected over three decades (1988–2016) from nine newspapers. The analysis of “general consensus” around climate change and the consensus around both its causes and consequences, shows that scepticism is still present in newspapers’ narratives especially in relation to centre-right political orientations. The increasing consensus around both the causes and consequences does not necessarily mean that scepticism has disappeared, but it raises further questions around the modalities through which consequences, and actions to limit their impact, are represented.