What Comes from Confronting a Growing 'Certainty'? Exploring How UK Journalism Reports the Politics of Climate Change

This paper discusses a growing 'certainty' on the seriousness of the climate change issue observed in UK elite reporting. It identifies this type of reporting as produced by a process to 'domesticate' the issue in the UK. Important within this domestication process is an elite politicization of climate change where political actors demonstrate forms of token 'cultural leadership' alongside voiced concerns to combat this potentially disruptive issue. Equally significant are UK journalists' efforts to mediate these frequent elite commentaries according to the interests and the practices of elite journalism logic and, in turn, to report them alongside scientific and civil society voices and perspectives on the issue. This paper introduces the frames and voices found in the UK elite reporting and recognises how this coverage contrasts with coverage argued previously to be replete with climate scepticism and/ or elite challenges to climate change. Further, with UK domestication set to intensity, it suggests that we will likely see elite UK journalism confronting a growing controversy over the policy and the actions used to adapt to and mitigate the outcomes of climate change. Not only will political elites seek to hone their claims making to respond to the concerns raised by international political actors then but also to quell growing criticism voiced by interest groups on the home front. Given this developing situation, we may even see elite journalistic voices joining reporting and acting their fourth estate role when calling for further action.