Eco-Anxiety: A Discourse Analysis of Media Representations of the School Strike for Climate Movement

Abstract

Introduction: Eco-anxiety has been described as worry (heightened concern), which may encompass various types and degrees of distress (physical and/or psychological) about the present environment/climatic crisis, and the future state of the health of ecosystems. Aims: The main objective of the study was to analyse how the youth climate change movement was constructed by the newspaper press in Australia, with respect to both eco-anxiety and climate change. At present, there has been no discursive research that has examined how youth climate change protesters are represented in the Australian media by newspaper publication. Methodology: This study used Wetherell’s approach to critical discourse analysis to identify rhetorical strategies, repertoires and modes of argumentation. A search was conducted from NewsBank and from eight main Australian newspapers websites focusing on articles published during 2018 - 2019. A subsample of nine extracts from 100 opinion/commentary newspaper articles were utilised to illustrate the main recurring themes found in in the data set. Results: The findings suggest that articles published by News Corp (e.g. The Australian) gave negative portrayals of the School Strike for Climate movement, while Nine Entertainment Co. (e.g. Sydney Morning Herald) generally framed the school strikes positively, including all regional newspapers irrespective of the media outlet. Conclusions: The ongoing existential threat of climate change will ensure that eco-anxiety is an ongoing problem, so further research will need to investigate its longer-term significance, as well as public and media representations of the school strikers.