Keyword – frame analysis

Vécsey, Virág:

Verdure in identity, but loyal to the market: the ambigous role of Index.hu

This study examines the responsibility attribution schemes that appear in climate change news on the online news site Index. The research is based on a combined method for the comprehensive examination of the media representation of climate change, specifically developed for the research of this topic by Antal Wozniak et al. (2015). This multimodal approach explores framing, narrative and visual content at the same time. The fundamentally qualitative approach was supplemented by a quantitative element when examining frames, which also follows the methodology of previous research (Smeteko & Valkenberg 2000, Dirikx & Gelders 2010). Index focused on climate change as part of its international media collaboration, Covering Climate Now, and published 31 relevant articles of different genres during the week before the New York climate summit. The findings of the research show that most of the articles held political actors responsible for managing the consequences of climate change, but the responsibility of the individual, whose primary task according to the analysed content is conscious consumption, also comes to the fore. Through the motif of consumption, the researched content suggests that the media are also an actor in the creation of a conscious consumer who, as a subject of green governance, can be manipulated through his/her freedom of choice.

Keywords: climate change, environment, frame analysis, multimodal approach, responsibilty attribution