The United Kingdom and the Philippines: A comparative study on the climate change coverage in online news articles and its impacts on the youth’s climate literacy

• Main Authors: Baldivia, Caryn Sidney H., Castro, Francesca F., Moreno, Krizel Nisse S.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Climatic changes > Philippines; Climatic changes > United Kingdom; International and Area Studies
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdb_intlstud/6; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=etdb_intlstud
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, which is why the citizens must be knowledgeable of what climate change is and how they can effectively mitigate and adapt with its impacts. However, despite the vital role of news media in spreading awareness of current issues, there is a confounding lack of news coverage in the country, hence, serving as a threat to the attention of Filipinos on climate change. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom (UK) is known as one of the frontrunners in the field of climate media–having extensively covered climate change since the 1980s and is constantly pursuing efforts to mitigate climate change. They also have one of the most active youth activists fighting to end climate change. This study assumes that media coverage of climate change news considerably influences both situations. This research explores the correlation between the amount of online media coverage on climate change and the climate literacy levels of the youth in both the Philippines and the UK. A 3-pronged approach was applied to examine their circumstances: a) assessing climate change media coverage through online news articles, b) interviewing climate journalists, and c) conducting surveys measuring the climate literacy of the youth and their interaction with online news articles. The study utilized a three-pronged approach to compare the amount of scholarly news coverage on climate change, assess the climate literacy levels of each country’s youth readers, and gain insight into the factors that affect the publications of news articles from each country. Findings prove a positive correlation between climate change coverage in online news articles and the youth’s climate literacy, further contributing to understanding the proper approach toward adequate climate media coverage.