Becoming cosmopolitan? Comparing climate change coverage in newspapers across countries

Climate change is a global issue but one that affects different states and groups within and across states in different ways. Policies to address climate change require concerted international efforts but this, of course, is hindered by contrasting perceptions of national interests and assessments of the actions of other states. In this article, we examine the extent to which news media institutions contribute either to a “domestication” of this global issue, essentially reporting merely national perspectives, or whether they contribute to a more global, cosmopolitan understanding. Here we conduct a content analysis of twelve newspapers in six countries from the Global North and South investigating their reporting of three Conferences of Parties over a period of twelve years. While there is evidence of continued domestication of this issue there is also evidence of an emergent cosmopolitan discourse that is transnational in character.