Kwentong Klima: A Narrative Analysis on Climate Change Stories in Philippines Print News Media (2013-2017)

Abstract

In this qualitative study, I aimed to describe the narratives that are embeddedin 31 climate change news stories published in three major newspapers in the Philippines. I also investigated the narrative norms Filipino journalists used in writing news stories on climate change, as well as their subject positions. Using Arnold's (2015) integrated model of cultural narrative analysis and narratological analysis as methods, I extracted four narratives from the climate change stories: (1) the narrative of international cooperation with a sub-narrative of internal struggle between climate action and national development; (2) the narrative of government "wars' against climate change with three sub-categories: economic aspects, disaster preparedness, and calls for public cooperation; (3) the narrative of climate justice; and (4) the narrative of science as an answer to climate change.

The narrative norms that the Filipino journalists used in narrating climate change stories were: (1) announcements; (2) quotations/reports; (3) narration; (4) re narration; (5) metaphor; and (6) summary. While they try to adhere to standards of objectivity, journalists showed a strong presence as they shaped these narratives. The subject position that emerged in these narratives were that of journalists as loyal facilitators of politicians who were known as climate action advocates despite their use of heterodiegetic narration and external focalization. The journalists also mainly used achronological temporal order which highlighted what they think were important aspects of news. The journalists primarily employed frame space in the narrative and only used thematic space to emphasize environmental degradation. Because they were constrained by principles of objectivity, the journalists characterized the villains, victims, and heroes through figural characterization or using other characters to describe other characters. When they used narratorial characterization, they described characters with descriptions that can be verified.

Through narratological analysis, I concluded that the subject position of journalists was that of a loyal facilitator, portraying politicians who advocate for climate action in a positive light. They also narrate a romantic story of climate change as an issue that can be solved through international cooperation and research.

However, l also observed the lack of diversity in terms of characters in these climate change stories, leading to the conclusion that mainstream news media failed in providing a platform for different views to be aired, especially that of the marginalized.

I further recommended that further studies be made to verify whether these narratives exist in other media as well as in interviews with journalists and news editors. This study further showed the need for the principles of development Journalism to be practiced in mainstream news organizations or for media organizations that advocate the tenets of development journalism to be formed. In this way, news media may be able to fulfill its duty to become a platform of diverse voices in order to solve the complex problem of climate change.