CONSTRUCTING ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY IN CLIMATE CHANGE REPORTING: A CORPUS-ASSISTED CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF PAKISTANI ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20974726Keywords:
Climate Change Discourse, Climate Communication, Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis, Environmental Responsibility, Pakistani English NewspapersAbstract
The present study examines the development of environmental responsibility in the context of climate change reporting in English-language newspapers published in Pakistan using Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis (CACDA). The study analyzes 500 climate-related articles from Dawn and The Nation published between 2020 and 2026. The study draws on Fairclough’s (1995)Three-Dimensional Model of Critical Discourse Analysis, which is based on the use of corpus linguistic techniques, such as frequency analysis, keyword analysis, collocation analysis, and concordance analysis, in conjunction with qualitative discourse interpretation. The results show that the discourses of environmental vulnerability, sustainability, adaptation and governance are the most prominent discourses on climate change. Governments, developed countries, industries, and citizens are considered the main actors in environmental responsibility, though the extent of their roles varies. The research also reveals the ideologies of climate justice, collective responsibility, and sustainable development. The results will be helpful to the field of climate communication studies to show that the media has a significant influence on the public understanding of environmental responsibility in Pakistan.
Downloads
References
Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C., KhosraviNik, M., Krzyżanowski, M., McEnery, T., & Wodak, R. (2021). A useful methodological synergy? Combining critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics. Routledge.
Boykoff, M. T. (2021). Creative (climate) communications: Productive pathways for science, policy and society. Cambridge University Press.
Brüggemann, M., & Engesser, S. (2023). Climate communication and journalism in a changing media environment. Environmental Communication, 17(3), 245–259.
Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Longman.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2023). Climate change 2023: Synthesis report. IPCC. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/
Machin, D., & Mayr, A. (2023). How to do critical discourse analysis: A multimodal introduction (3rd ed.). Sage.
Newell, P., Srivastava, S., Naess, L. O., Torres Contreras, G. A., & Price, R. (2021). Toward transformative climate justice. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 12(4), e733. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.733
Olausson, U., & Berglez, P. (2022). Media and climate responsibility: Discourses of accountability in climate communication. Journalism Studies, 23(9), 1051–1068.
Painter, J., Schäfer, M. S., & Oliveira, T. (2022). Climate journalism and media framing in the digital age. Environmental Communication, 16(6), 701–717.
Partington, A., Duguid, A., & Taylor, C. (2023). Patterns and meanings in discourse: Theory and practice in corpus-assisted discourse studies (2nd ed.). John Benjamins.
Pera, A., & Aiello, G. (2023). Climate communication, media discourse, and public engagement. Environmental Communication, 17(8), 987–1004.
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. (2025). Journalism, media and climate change reporting. University of Oxford.
Schäfer, M. S., & Painter, J. (2021). Climate journalism in a changing media ecosystem. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 12(1), e675. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.675
Taylor, C. (2022). Corpus-assisted discourse studies and media analysis. Corpora, 17(2), 203–221.
Wonneberger, A., Meijers, M., & Schuck, A. (2023). Public engagement and climate communication: The role of media discourse. Public Understanding of Science, 32(4), 451–468.
Wozniak, A., Lück, J., Wessler, H., & Fähnrich, B. (2022). Climate change communication and media representations: Recent developments and future directions. Environmental Communication, 16(5), 561–575.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Umme Rayyan Gull, Muhammad Kamran Abbas Ismail , Eisha Tanvir, Ali Ahmad (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
