Canadian Media Portrayal of Climate Change: An Investigation of Major Canadian Newspaper Outlets' Coverage of Federal Climate Change Action

This paper examines how four major Canadian newspaper outlets reported on climate change decisions by the federal government from 2007-2014. The paper analyzes 86 articles using criteria related to slant: language, tone and authorities; and depth of coverage by length of article. The analysis results organize the articles and then the outlets, on a scale from supportive to critical of action taken or not taken on climate change by the federal government. This scale was then juxtaposed with Canadian newspaper readership data to determine what type of coverage most Canadians are reading.

It was found that in most major Canadian cities the majority of citizens read Postmedia News, which generated very polar results in terms of this study. Upon further examination of journalists employed it was determined Postmedia is a more supportive outlet on federal climate change action. This may help explain the current public complacency on climate action in Canada.