News, ideology and climate change

Research consistently finds that political ideology is among the most important factors driving how individuals understand and engage with the climate crisis, suggesting that ideological narratives and frames – rather than (mis)information about science – are the principal avenues through which media and journalism influence public opinion about climate change. While coverage of climate science has significantly improved over the past decade, it is the mediated (and motivated) entanglement of climate change and fossil fuels with concepts such as freedom, identity, individualism, nationalism, consumerism and growthism through which news will continue to shape if and how we address climate change.