The results section examines each of the research questions in turn.
Visual coverage over time
Visual coverage gradually increased during the period 2001–2004. From 2004 to 2007, there was a rapid increase in climate visuals. Image quantity was only affected by socio-political events towards the latter end of the decade: earlier in the decade, the annual COPs and the IPCC TAR (2001) did not affect the quantity of visual images in newspapers. However, later on in the decade, coverage around the 2007 IPCC AR4 did produce a peak in visuals, as did the timing of the 2009 COP (COP15) and the co-occuring ‘Climategate’ affair.
Between 8 and 18% of all climate news stories in UK newspapers have an associated image, with the US newspapers figure slightly higher at between 10 and 21%. Note these figures are certainly a (possibly considerable) under-representation of the number articles with associated visuals, as it compares this visual dataset (where articles are individually read, and only those substantively about climate change are counted) with the Boykoff et al. (2019) newspaper coverage figures (an automatic count of all articles mentioning climate change). Bearing this caveat in mind, it is estimated that at least one in every five articles about climate change has an associated visual.
In all newspapers, three visual domains (images of identifiable people, climate impacts and causes of climate change) dominate the climate change visual imagery coverage (range 45–76%, mean 62%). As O’Neill (2013) found, the ‘people’ domain was dominated by images of politicians (range 11–19%, mean 16%). Scientists, business leaders, celebrities and other identifiable individuals all comprised, on average, 3% or less of coverage. Impacts imagery is particularly dominant in the UK newspapers (Telegraph 41%, Daily Mail 34%, Guardian 27%). There is considerable diversity within the ‘impacts’ domain, although much of the coverage is of polar and ice imagery, species and landscapes at risk and drought or flooding. Images of ‘solutions’ comprise a small proportion of coverage (range 4–12%, mean 9%), much of which depicts non-fossil fuel transport (such as electric cars) and wind power. Similarly, scientific figures (such as maps, charts and infographics) are fairly uncommon, except in the Wall Street Journal where they comprise almost a third (29%) of visual coverage. Climate change cartoons are present in each of the newspapers studied (range 3–12%, mean 6%). Images of climate protest are present in four of the five newspapers, at low levels (none in the Daily Mail; range 2–6%, mean 4%, in the other four newspapers).
These broad visual domains were also analysed for changes over time. Note that percentage of annual coverage—rather than article counts—is used, to account for the substantial increase in volume of visuals towards the end of the decade. However, this does mean that in the early part of the decade, low overall numbers of visuals mean that individual image counts have a disproportionate effect on the appearance of trends. There are four discernible trends over time. First, there is an increase in visuals depicting identifiable people over the decade (Fig. 1(a)). As discussed, much of this coverage is of politicians; and so coverage of politicians is low at the start of the decade (especially in 2003), but from 2005 onwards all newspapers used images of politicians to visualise climate change. Second, the coverage of ‘solutions’ also increases steadily, from almost no such images in 2001–2002 to 13% of the total annual coverage by the end of the decade (Fig. 1(b)). Third, there is a decline in the use of impacts imagery over the decade. This is especially noticeable in the UK newspapers (particularly the Telegraph and Guardian), when as much as half of their coverage before mid-decade depicted climate change impacts (Fig. 1(d)).
Fourth, there is an increase in diversity in the visual discourse around mid-decade. Before 2005, climate change rarely featured in cartoons associated with articles (and never in the cartoons of the Telegraph or the Daily Mail; Fig. 4h). After, climate change cartoons associated with articles featured at fairly consistent levels (median 6–7% from 2005 to 2009 inclusive) in all newspapers. Similarly, protest visuals rarely featured before 2005 (indeed, 2003 and 2004 saw no such images). From 2005, and particularly towards the end of the decade, protest images featured in all newspapers, and become a mainstay in the UK newspapers; Fig. 4g.
Iconic imagery and climate synecdoches
As the visual language of climate change evolved through the decade, so too do particular iconic images start to become more frequently used, and become embedded in the visual discourse. These have been termed ‘visual synecdoches’. Visual synecdoches are a type of visual shorthand, used within a particular culture to immediately signify to the reader a particular set of ideas about climate change beyond the immediately represented denotative content (O’Neill 2013; O’Neill et al. 2015; see also Nerlich 2019). As these synecdoches become embedded in the visual discourse, they can become clichéd or stereotyped. As Linder (2006) described in his study of climate change advertising, visual synecdoches may also become subject to parody, inverting and challenging the original reading of the visual. Here, visual synecdoches were identified both through a bottom-up process, examining the dataset for frequently used imagery that was not directly associated with the manifest content of the text, and top-down, examining the dataset for iconic climate change imagery as identified in previous studies (including Smith and Joffe 2009, DiFrancesco and Young 2011, O’Neill 2013, León and Erviti 2013, Nerlich and Jaspal 2014, Rebich-Hespanha et al. 2015, Wozniak et al. 2015 and Born 2018). Notable visual synecdoches arising within this dataset are ice imagery and polar bears, smokestacks and wind turbines (Fig. 2).
Ice imagery (Fig. 2(a). and Fig. 3) comprises a considerable proportion of coverage across all newspapers. For example, it reaches as much as 25% of annual coverage for the Daily Mail and Telegraph in 2002. Ice imagery usage begins to decline (as a percentage of annual coverage) from around 2005 onwards. This ice imagery is beautiful and awe-inspiring, and rarely depicts people. Analysis of the images, together with the articles’ headlines, main text and caption shows how this visual synecdoche works to create feelings of distant wonder and threat of climate risk (see O’Neill et al. 2013) For example, the image alongside a 2002 Daily Mail piece titled ‘The ice monster: fears as a 50 billion-ton Antarctic mass collapses’ portrays a massive polar ice edge, devoid of any people or animals, with a caption describing the ‘staggering’ ice mass.
In contrast, imagery of polar bears is sporadic before 2005 and increases thereafter (Fig. 2(b) and Fig. 4). Polar bear imagery is more common in the Daily Mail and Telegraph but rarely seen in the other newspapers. Until 2007, polar bear images accompany straightforward reporting about the threat of climate change to the species. A typical example is ‘Polar bears in peril as Arctic ice cap melts’ in the Daily Mail in 2002, picturing a lone bear in close-up. A similar piece in the Telegraph in 2003 pictures two polar bears on ice floes separated by dark water. This visual trope changes from 2007 onwards, when it starts to be subverted, and the polar bear icon is instead used to parody climate change. The Daily Mail articles ‘Don’t panic (much)’ in 2008, and ‘10 mad ways to save the planet’ (2009) are both illustrated with the same photograph. Arnae Nævra’s award-winning ‘Polar Meltdown’ image depicts a single bear scrabbling to cling onto a small ice floe floating in a dark sea. Similarly, in the Telegraph in 2007, the piece ‘Don’t look now: James Delingpole is terrified by our susceptibility to doomsday scenarios’ is illustrated by a headshot of a winking polar bear captioned ‘sceptical: a polar bear weighing up the evidence for climate change’. In contrast, the widespread recognition of the polar bear as a ‘tired and hackneyed icon’—a (subverted) synecdoche—led to The Guardian avoiding such imagery where possible (Leo Hickman, former Guardian journalist, pers. comm., 13/07/18). As with O’Neill’s (2013) study of newspaper imagery during 2010, polar bear images are rare in the US newspapers throughout the period.
Smokestacks imagery (Fig. 2(c) and Fig. 5) is almost non-existent before 2006 (used just three times, in US newspapers only). Then, in 2006, both UK and US newspapers start to use smokestacks imagery. This may well be as a consequence of the film An Inconvenient Truth, which launched in 2006 featuring a stylised smokestack-cyclone graphic as its cover image. It remains a small but regular part of the visual coverage from then on, in both US and UK newspapers. This imagery typically features dark-coloured scenes of industry, with towering chimneys billowing ominous clouds over the scene, sometimes featuring red or orange tones; together, these elements evoke feelings of heat, threat and danger (see O’Neill et al. 2013). Such images are used as ways to illustrate satirical messages, playing on the images’ portrayal of fear and gloom (‘Why the doom mongers have got it so wrong’, Daily Mail 2006) and as a visual metaphor for lies and exaggeration (‘Hot issue or hot air?’ Telegraph 2007).
There is very little coverage of mitigation measures. However, there is evidence of images of wind turbines assuming visual synecdoche status. Wind turbine imagery consistently appears in the dataset from 2005 onwards (Fig. 2(d) and Fig. 6). It is particularly prominent in the Daily Mail, where it reaches over 10% of coverage in both 2008 and 2009. Such images typically feature many turbines, in both land- and sea-based locations. Whilst images do accompany stories directly about wind power (‘Debate Over Wind Power Creates Environmental Rift’, New York Times 2006), turbines begin to accompany broader sceptical narratives, where the camera angle of images can often emphasise the size of the turbines and movement of the turbine blades (e.g. ‘Greenwash!; A Cambridge don argues that we are being misled by green propaganda’, Daily Mail 2008).
Some imagery is noticeable by its absence. The image of the globe from space is an iconic image, drawing on the original visual evoked by the 1972 Apollo 17 space photograph of the globe suspended in space. Although a recognised important and iconic visual of the environmental movement (see Cosgrove 1994), it is uncommon in this climate change visual dataset. It does not appear at all in the New York Times, and only in very low levels in the other four newspapers (between 1 and 2%). This contrasts with other climate visual work (Rebich-Hespanha et al. 2015), where the globe in space was found to be more common (6% of all images; note though that the Hespanha et al. study used less than a third of the imagery examined here (n = 350, compared with n = 1278).
Visual framing
The visual dataset was analysed for visual frames using the framing schema of O’Neill (2013). O’Neill (2013) identified two visual climate change frames: the contested frame, which acted as a divisive device by heightening tension, and by separating the viewer from the narrative by situating climate change as an issue controlled by elites; and the distancing visual frame, which situated climate change as both geographically and psychologically distant to everyday practice and experience, rather than as an issue with impacts, causes and solutions close to home.
Applying the O’Neill (2013) frame schema indicates that between 2001 and 2004, the distancing visual frame was frequently used (Fig. 7). In 2003 and 2004 particularly, there was very little use of the contested visual frame. From 2005 to 2009, the contested frame coverage increased, and the use of the distancing frame decreased. From 2005 to 2008, there was remarkable consistency in the proportion of both frames in visual coverage, despite the rapidly increasing quantity of climate visuals. In 2009, frame use converged, with the contested frame increasing, and the distancing frame decreasing. The framing trends are similar between the USA and UK, although the distancing frame is less common in the USA.
Visual framing appears remarkably resilient to change, even during specific events. For example, reporting around the IPCC's 2007 Fourth Assessment Report produced a peak in visual coverage, but no change in the frames used. The annual COPs and the IPCC's 2001 TAR also do not affect visual framing. There are two exceptions. In 2001 (and into 2002), the proportion of contested visual framing was high, and distancing framing was comparatively low. This was the result of coverage from a tumultuous year for climate change policy, as President George W Bush withdrew the USA from the Kyoto Protocol, combined with very low levels of visual coverage overall. In 2009, the proportion of coverage for the two frames converges. Again, climate policy and controversy loomed larger than usual at this point, as COP15 was communicated to journalists as ‘the most important meeting since the end of the second world war’ (IIED 2009:1). The concurrent Climatic Research Unit email controversy (‘Climategate’) helped to fuel a significant spike in media attention to climate change (Boykoff et al. 2019).