ABSTRACT

COVID-19 has provoked fears that the heavy reporting of pandemic developments may cause climate change to slip from public attention. Views have also converged that the focus should be on the positive lessons of COVID-19 for addressing climate change. This paper examined Guardian Online and Positive News to identify examples of good practice in reporting the synergistic effects of climate change and COVID-19, as both are committed to covering climate change and practice solutions-oriented constructive journalism that provides context by explaining relations between issues. The study sought to identify the types of synergistic effects that were reported and how they were reported through metaphors—key conceptualisation tools. Analysis of 153 news articles published in the first year of the pandemic showed that the coverage of synergistic effects was solutions-oriented and synergistic effects were discussed mainly through Movement and Colour metaphors—particularly the colour Green. War metaphors which have dominated reporting when climate change and COVID-19 have been discussed separately were rare. Reliance on Movement and Colour metaphors can be interpreted as a positive practice, as Movement metaphors are familiar, vivid and more flexible than War metaphors, while Green metaphors are closely associated with environmentalism and have positive connotations.

摘要

COVID-19 引发了人们对大流行发展的大量报道可能导致气候变化从公众关注中滑落的担忧。观点也趋于一致，即重点应放在 COVID-19 应对气候变化的积极经验上。本文考察了在线卫报和正面新闻找出报告气候变化和 COVID-19 协同效应的良好做法的例子，因为两者都致力于报道气候变化和实践以解决方案为导向的建设性新闻，通过解释问题之间的关系来提供背景。该研究试图确定报告的协同效应的类型以及它们如何通过隐喻——关键的概念化工具——进行报告。对大流行第一年发表的153篇新闻文章的分析表明，协同效应的报道是面向解决方案的，协同效应的讨论主要通过运动和颜色的隐喻——尤其是绿色。当气候变化和 COVID-19 单独讨论时，主导报道的战争隐喻很少见。