<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The climate crisis concerns the whole fabric of society. Local journalism can play a key role when cities are handling the problems. In this article, I analyse local media discourses on climate change in four Swedish cities that aim to be role models in the transition towards carbon neutrality. A discourse analysis of news articles and op-eds about the climate, combined with semi-structured interviews with journalists working at four different local newspapers, shows that the climate crisis is covered in all newspapers – even if the amount and ambition varies – including the ability to fill key roles as watchdog and educator. The newsrooms’ climate focus also had to give way when the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Local decisions about transportation, food, and urban development are common topics and often debated in the local press. However, the prize-winning cities’ ambitious green plans to become climate neutral already by 2030 remain vague for the journalists and probably also their readers.</p>
</abstract>

The climate crisis concerns the whole fabric of society. Local journalism can play a key role when cities are handling the problems. In this article, I analyse local media discourses on climate change in four Swedish cities that aim to be role models in the transition towards carbon neutrality. A discourse analysis of news articles and op-eds about the climate, combined with semi-structured interviews with journalists working at four different local newspapers, shows that the climate crisis is covered in all newspapers – even if the amount and ambition varies – including the ability to fill key roles as watchdog and educator. The newsrooms’ climate focus also had to give way when the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Local decisions about transportation, food, and urban development are common topics and often debated in the local press. However, the prize-winning cities’ ambitious green plans to become climate neutral already by 2030 remain vague for the journalists and probably also their readers.

Agents of sustainable transition or place branding promotors?: Local journalism and climate change in Sweden

Nordic Journal of Media Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The climate crisis concerns the whole fabric of society. Local journalism can play a key role when cities are handling the problems. In this article, I analyse...

Agents of sustainable transition or place branding promotors?: Local journalism and climate change in Sweden

Published Online: Jul 06, 2021

Page range: 20 - 39

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2021-0002

Keywords
climate change communication, discourse analysis, local journalism, local media, place branding

© 2021 Annika Egan Sjölander, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Agents of sustainable transition or place branding promotors?: Local journalism and climate change in Sweden

Published Online: Jul 06, 2021

Page range: 20 - 39

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2021-0002

Keywordsclimate change communication, discourse analysis, local journalism, local media, place branding

© 2021 Annika Egan Sjölander, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Keywords
climate change communication, discourse analysis, local journalism, local media, place branding