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Measuring Social Benefits of Media Coverage: How Coverage of Climate Change Affects Behaviour

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  • Graham Beattie

Abstract

It has been well documented that beliefs and actions can be affected by media coverage. In this paper, I study the effect of newspaper coverage of climate change on individual driving behaviour. I construct a measure of the tone of coverage based on comparisons between environmental and sceptical texts. I then use this measure, along with detailed information about driving patterns, to test whether households’ travel decisions are affected by the coverage that they have recently received. I find that coverage of climate change that uses an environmental tone causes households to make environmentally friendly travel decisions, particularly when good substitutes are available. Since driving is a major source of carbon emissions, these results illustrate a potential externality of media coverage.

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  • Graham Beattie, 2025. "Measuring Social Benefits of Media Coverage: How Coverage of Climate Change Affects Behaviour," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 135(666), pages 455-486.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:135:y:2025:i:666:p:455-486.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ej/ueae067
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