Beyond the Climate Science Wars: Elite Framing and Climate Change Policy Conflict
Abstract
Stakeholders involved in debates around climate-energy policy shape public conversations through different “frames”: message units that strategically emphasize particular aspects of an issue while downplaying others. In this project, I investigate the presence of frames within climate change discourse and their political influence in the creation of climate-energy policies. Two types of frames are of particular theoretical interest: science frames, which highlight the scientific facets of the climate crisis, and policy design frames, which alternatively emphasize the non-climate impacts potentially arising from climate policies, such as economic and public health benefits or harms. Messages based on science frames have played a key role in climate change discourse, yet other scholarship argues that frames which avoid discussion of climate science, like policy design frames, may be more effective at building public support because they highlight the consequences of climate-energy policies that are more salient in peoples’ everyday lives. I explore these issues using qualitative content analysis to catalog the framing strategies of climate policy supporters and opponents. I then investigate the apparent influence of different frames in an on-the-ground case of subnational climate change policy conflict in action. Findings suggest that science frames may play a limited role when it comes to the development of actual climate policy at the state level, and importantly, that the strategic use of issue frames was able to level the playing field between environmental advocates and historically dominant industry actors. This work thus contributes to ongoing debates in the climate change framing literature by considering the “real world” of political communication coupled with an on-the-ground policy conflict.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Raymond, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Climate Change|Natural Resource Management
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