Print Media Coverage of Climate Change: Comparative Study of South Asian Press

Abstract

South Asia consists of eight nations (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka), is home to more than one-fifth of the world’s population and is the world’s most densely populated geographical region. South Asia is often regarded as the world’s most disaster-prone area. Climate change is one of the most serious issues confronting human society and ecosystems. Decision-makers confront a difficult problem in developing effective policies to reduce its hazards. The previous decade witnessed high-risk floods and weather patterns in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Unlike the developed world, environmental calamity is visible and comparatively less addressed specially in the under developed and developing nations of South Asia. The print media is of vital importance to raise the voice about the future related hazard of climate change. It has been observed that developing countries’ media does not give sufficient coverage and stress on climate change and environmental issues. We conduct research to address the gap and to have better understand the topic, our study analyzes the coverage of climate change in the English newspapers of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Opinion pages of these newspapers are analyzed through content analysis. The time frame of the research is 6 years (2019-2024) to have an overview of any shift in media coverage and awareness related to climate change.

Presenters

Muhammad Nauman
Assistant Director/ Lecturer Media and Public Relations, International Islamic University Islamabad, Pakistan

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Human Impacts and Responsibility

KEYWORDS

CLIMATE CHANGE, MEDIA COVERAGE, NEWSPAPERS, NATURAL CALAMITIES