IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tcpoxx/v17y2017i8p982-997.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Read all about it!? Public accountability, fragmented global climate governance and the media

Author

Listed:
  • Sylvia I. Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen
  • Lars Friberg
  • Edoardo Saccenti

Abstract

The way that the media reports and comments on key events in the fragmented global climate governance landscape is one important route to strengthening public accountability of such governance. Editorials and other opinion pieces provide key contributions to the public sphere, but have been almost entirely neglected in media research on climate change. Another understudied aspect in such research is the reporting on the fragmentation of global climate governance across numerous forums. This article provides an exploratory approach to address these two research gaps. It presents a quantitative analysis of how often leading newspapers in seven countries (Finland, India, Laos, Norway, South Africa, UK and USA) wrote about 18 meetings in six different global climate governance forums between 2004–2009 and whether they provided commentaries about them. The study shows that media coverage (articles and opinion pieces) is limited or absent for many meetings that are not attended by heads of state, are the launch of a new process or do not have the convening power of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The pattern of coverage differs significantly among individual newspapers and there is no clear distinction between developed and developing country newspapers. The article concludes that overall news coverage, and editorial commentary in particular, of global climate meetings in the selected newspapers is too low and too patchy to significantly support domestic publics to hold their own (and indirectly other) governments accountable with regard to fragmented global climate governance.Policy relevanceThis study is instructive for the media and civil society, who should both act as accountholders of governments with regard to how they act in global climate governance and its implementation. Reporting and commentaries need to reflect the overarching process, not only sporadic coverage of high-level meetings, but also critical analysis of what is achieved. They should also take a broader scope in terms of the kinds of meetings and processes in global governance that they cover. Civil society should encourage the media to increase coverage along these lines, e.g. by adequate monitoring of government actions (or lack thereof) and share this with the media.

Suggested Citation

  • Sylvia I. Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen & Lars Friberg & Edoardo Saccenti, 2017. "Read all about it!? Public accountability, fragmented global climate governance and the media," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(8), pages 982-997, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:17:y:2017:i:8:p:982-997
    DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2016.1213695
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14693062.2016.1213695
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14693062.2016.1213695?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fariborz Zelli, 2011. "The fragmentation of the global climate governance architecture," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(2), pages 255-270, March.
    2. Abbott, Kenneth W. & Keohane, Robert O. & Moravcsik, Andrew & Slaughter, Anne-Marie & Snidal, Duncan, 2000. "The Concept of Legalization," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(3), pages 401-419, July.
    3. Abbott, Kenneth W. & Snidal, Duncan, 2000. "Hard and Soft Law in International Governance," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(3), pages 421-456, July.
    4. Moravcsik, Andrew, 1997. "Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International Politics," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(4), pages 513-553, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aikaterini Zerva & Evangelos Grigoroudis & Evangelia Karasmanaki & Georgios Tsantopoulos, 2021. "Multiple criteria analysis of citizens’ information and trust in climate change actions," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 7706-7727, May.
    2. Abbas Abdul, 2023. "Policy seduction and governance resistance? Examining public funding agencies and academic institutions on decarbonisation research," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 50(1), pages 87-101.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen & Harro Asselt, 2009. "Introduction: exploring and explaining the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 195-211, August.
    2. Anne van Aaken, 2009. "Effectuating Public International Law through Market Mechanisms?," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 165(1), pages 33-57, March.
    3. Paul A. Schulte & Ivo Iavicoli & Luca Fontana & Stavroula Leka & Maureen F. Dollard & Acran Salmen-Navarro & Fernanda J. Salles & Kelly P. K. Olympio & Roberto Lucchini & Marilyn Fingerhut & Francesco, 2022. "Occupational Safety and Health Staging Framework for Decent Work," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-28, August.
    4. Oliver Westerwinter & Kenneth W. Abbott & Thomas Biersteker, 2021. "Informal governance in world politics," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-27, January.
    5. Eric Brousseau & Yves Schemeil and Jérôme Sgard, 2011. "Sovereignty without Borders: On Individual Rights, the Delegation to Rule, and Globalization," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 28, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    6. Tobias Lenz & Besir Ceka & Liesbet Hooghe & Gary Marks & Alexandr Burilkov, 2023. "Discovering cooperation: Endogenous change in international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 631-666, October.
    7. Ramzi Badran, 2014. "Intrastate peace agreements and the durability of peace," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 31(2), pages 193-217, April.
    8. Markus Gastinger & Henning Schmidtke, 2023. "Measuring precision precisely: A dictionary-based measure of imprecision," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 553-571, July.
    9. Bernauer, Thomas & Kalbhenn, Anna & Koubi, Vally & Ruoff, Gabi, 2010. "On commitment levels and compliance mechanisms: Determinants of participation in global environmental agreements," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 94, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    10. Maximilian S. T. Wanner, 0. "The effectiveness of soft law in international environmental regimes: participation and compliance in the Hyogo Framework for Action," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-20.
    11. Charalampos Koutalakis & Aron Buzogany & Tanja A. Börzel, 2010. "When soft regulation is not enough: The integrated pollution prevention and control directive of the European Union," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(3), pages 329-344, September.
    12. Linn Persson & Åsa Persson & Chanthy Sam, 2016. "Implementation of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management in Cambodia: effects of regime design," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-20, February.
    13. Tom Ginsburg, 2009. "International delegation and state disaggregation," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 323-340, September.
    14. Tanja A. Börzel & Tobias Hofmann & Diana Panke, 2011. "Policy Matters But How? Explaining Non-Compliance Dynamics in the EU," KFG Working Papers p0024, Free University Berlin.
    15. Sylvia I. Karlsson‐Vinkhuyzen & Antto Vihma, 2009. "Comparing the legitimacy and effectiveness of global hard and soft law: An analytical framework," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(4), pages 400-420, December.
    16. repec:got:cegedp:94 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Fikri Muhammad, 2022. "Environmental agreement under the non-interference principle: the case of ASEAN agreement on transboundary haze pollution," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 139-155, March.
    18. MILE 09, Maria Anna Corvaglia, 2013. "The Complementarity of Soft and Hard Law in Public Procurement: between Harmonization and Resiliance," Papers 550, World Trade Institute.
    19. Eric Brousseau & Yves Schemeil & Jérôme Sgard, 2011. "Constitutional Rights; Economic dynamics; Vertical bargaining; state; global reordering; Legal order; public bureaucracies," RSCAS Working Papers 2011/28, European University Institute.
    20. Melissa Carlson & Barbara Koremenos, 2021. "Cooperation Failure or Secret Collusion? Absolute Monarchs and Informal Cooperation," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 95-135, January.
    21. Don Moon, 2006. "Equality and Inequality in the WTO Dispute Settlement (DS) System: Analysis of the GATT/WTO Dispute Data," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 201-228, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:17:y:2017:i:8:p:982-997. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tcpo20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.