Imagining the future at the global and national scale: a comparative study of British and Dutch press coverage of Rio 1992 and Rio 2012

Climate change and imagined futures are intricately linked, discussed by policymakers and reported in the media. In this article we focus on the construction of future expectation in the press coverage of the 1992 and 2012 United Nations conferences in Rio de Janeiro in British and Dutch national ne...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hellsten, Iina, Porter, Amanda, Nerlich, Brigitte
Format: Article
Published: Taylor and Francis 2014
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/3383/
_version_ 1848791026450300928
author Hellsten, Iina
Porter, Amanda
Nerlich, Brigitte
author_facet Hellsten, Iina
Porter, Amanda
Nerlich, Brigitte
author_sort Hellsten, Iina
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Climate change and imagined futures are intricately linked, discussed by policymakers and reported in the media. In this article we focus on the construction of future expectation in the press coverage of the 1992 and 2012 United Nations conferences in Rio de Janeiro in British and Dutch national newspapers. We use a novel combination of methods, semantic co-word networks and metaphor analysis to analyse imagined futures. Our findings show that between 1992 and 2012 there was a switch from future-oriented hope to past-oriented disappointment regarding implementing international agreements on climate change policy. While the UK focused on global issues, the Netherlands focused on national (including colonial) and local ones, reflecting different views and expectations about the future of climate change adaptation and mitigation.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T18:21:58Z
format Article
id nottingham-3383
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T18:21:58Z
publishDate 2014
publisher Taylor and Francis
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-33832020-05-04T20:16:48Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/3383/ Imagining the future at the global and national scale: a comparative study of British and Dutch press coverage of Rio 1992 and Rio 2012 Hellsten, Iina Porter, Amanda Nerlich, Brigitte Climate change and imagined futures are intricately linked, discussed by policymakers and reported in the media. In this article we focus on the construction of future expectation in the press coverage of the 1992 and 2012 United Nations conferences in Rio de Janeiro in British and Dutch national newspapers. We use a novel combination of methods, semantic co-word networks and metaphor analysis to analyse imagined futures. Our findings show that between 1992 and 2012 there was a switch from future-oriented hope to past-oriented disappointment regarding implementing international agreements on climate change policy. While the UK focused on global issues, the Netherlands focused on national (including colonial) and local ones, reflecting different views and expectations about the future of climate change adaptation and mitigation. Taylor and Francis 2014 Article PeerReviewed Hellsten, Iina, Porter, Amanda and Nerlich, Brigitte (2014) Imagining the future at the global and national scale: a comparative study of British and Dutch press coverage of Rio 1992 and Rio 2012. Environmental Communication, online . ISSN 1752-4032 (In Press) doi:10.1080/17524032.2014.911197 doi:10.1080/17524032.2014.911197
spellingShingle Hellsten, Iina
Porter, Amanda
Nerlich, Brigitte
Imagining the future at the global and national scale: a comparative study of British and Dutch press coverage of Rio 1992 and Rio 2012
title Imagining the future at the global and national scale: a comparative study of British and Dutch press coverage of Rio 1992 and Rio 2012
title_full Imagining the future at the global and national scale: a comparative study of British and Dutch press coverage of Rio 1992 and Rio 2012
title_fullStr Imagining the future at the global and national scale: a comparative study of British and Dutch press coverage of Rio 1992 and Rio 2012
title_full_unstemmed Imagining the future at the global and national scale: a comparative study of British and Dutch press coverage of Rio 1992 and Rio 2012
title_short Imagining the future at the global and national scale: a comparative study of British and Dutch press coverage of Rio 1992 and Rio 2012
title_sort imagining the future at the global and national scale: a comparative study of british and dutch press coverage of rio 1992 and rio 2012
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/3383/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/3383/