Rebel with a cause: the framing of climate change and intergenerational justice in the German press treatment of the Fridays for Future protests

This study investigates the representation of the Fridays for Future strikes in the German online newspapers Bild.de, Zeit Online and FAZ.net. Through a qualitative and quantitative content analysis over the time period August 2018 to March 2019, eight frames have been identified. Whereas Zeit Onlin...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor: Von Zabern, Lena
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Data de publicação:2021
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositório:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/53292
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/53292
http://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720960923
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:climate change
framing theory
Fridays for Future
German press
intergenerational justice
social protest
Descrição
Resumo:This study investigates the representation of the Fridays for Future strikes in the German online newspapers Bild.de, Zeit Online and FAZ.net. Through a qualitative and quantitative content analysis over the time period August 2018 to March 2019, eight frames have been identified. Whereas Zeit Online shows a framing towards intergenerational justice, the coverage of FAZ.net and Bild.de strongly adheres to the protest paradigm. The majority of all articles guarantees protesters a voice, but this voice is often reduced to apolitical testimonies and the protesters’ self-agency is undermined through disparagement. German media coverage thus tends to reproduce existing power structures by marginalizing and depoliticizing the political agenda of a system critical protest. Although this framing feeds into the shift of the climate change discourse towards adaptation, the study shows that the idea of climate change as an issue of intergenerational justice and children’s rights has become part of the media’s agenda.