The prevalence and possible policy implications of the use of national and human security frames in climate-change-related reports, in South Africa’s print newspapers

Abstract

Given the need for urgent climate action, newspapers have – and might increasingly come to – frame climate change (CC) as a security threat. By strategically securitising CC in published articles, newspapers could help catapult the issue to the top of policy agendas and mobilise resources to address it. Such an assertion rests on the assumption that newspapers can influence public opinion/behaviour directly and the public policy-making process indirectly.

Informed by the foregoing statements, this research project investigated the prevalence of a securitisation frame in CC-related articles published by South African newspapers. Given that different conceptualisations of ‘security’ exist, two sub-securitisation frames – those of human and national security – were proposed, and their prevalence investigated. Both investigations were informed by frame and content analyses.

A review of existing literature concerning the policy responses that securitising CC evokes was also conducted. The review revealed that although framing CC as a threat to national security had the potential to mobilise political attention and resources towards addressing CC, it could also result in the adoption of policies that would frustrate a transition to a more sustainable pathway. In contrast, it was found that framing CC as a human security threat could mobilise political attention and resources and facilitate the adoption of policies that support sustainable development.

Coupled with the results of the analyses conducted, the findings of the literature review allowed inferences to be made about the nature of possible CC-related policies that may be supported and adopted in South Africa. Considering (1) that the frame(s) employed by an article can only have an effect if the public reads the article and (2) that members of the public tend only to select and read an article employing a frame that resonates with them, it was crucial for the inferences to be qualified by an investigation into the frame preferences of South African newsreaders. As such, a survey was designed to investigate the security frame(s) corresponding to the CC-related articles that South Africans (N=20) preferred to read. Not only did the results of the survey better inform the inferences made regarding the policy implications of South African newspapers’ framing of CC, but they also better informed the creation of recommendations to help print newspapers become (more) effective climate change communicators.