The Images of Climate Change over the Last 20 Years: What Has Changed in the Portuguese Press?

Abstract

Over the past three decades, there has been a significant increase in political and media attention towards climate change. The media has been instrumental in shaping, reproducing, and influencing the political and cultural comprehension of this phenomenon. While previous research has concentrated primarily on the textual content of news articles, this study focuses on the use of images in climate communication. It is based on the belief that images can combine facts and emotions, engaging audiences and adding narrative complexity to verbal claims. With focus on climate imagery, a content analysis was conducted on 1010 images used by a Portuguese newspaper (Público) between January 2000 and May 2022 to visually cover climate change. The purpose of the analysis was to identify the visual frames used by the newspaper to frame the issue. The primary findings indicate that 35.5% of the images analyzed employ a frame that dramatizes the effects of climate change, evoking anxiety and vulnerability. However, there is evidence of a growing body of scientific literature that challenges and refutes the sensationalist and demoralizing narrative, resulting in the development of novel methods of communicating the phenomenon. Compared to the preceding period (2000–2005), the proportion of visual frames depicting potential solutions and adaptation strategies has increased substantially over the past three years (2020–2022) by 16.3%.

1. Introduction

Climate Change (CC) is no longer an ephemeral phenomenon, a looming calamity that will afflict people’s lives in the future, or a distant issue that we may overlook due to overlapping economic and political interests. Given the scientific projections that the global phenomenon will have severe repercussions for a large number of citizens, it is currently acknowledged that CC is one of the greatest challenges humanity faces (Schneider 2011). Therefore, mastery of communication has become a requirement for achieving political and social mobilization in response to the challenge.

The media has assumed a leading role in the social construction of the environment as a public, political, and global issue, frequently serving not only as a space for raising awareness but also as a social space where significant human mobilizations occur. Numerous studies on climate change aim to support the significance and function of the media in this context (Boykoff 2019; Carvalho 2005; León et al. 2021; Lester 2022; Painter and Ashe 2012; Schäfer and Schlichting 2014; Schmidt et al. 2013; Tandoc et al. 2018, among many others). People rely on media representations to help them understand and give meaning to the complexity of climate science, governance, and policy-making (Moser and Dilling 2007). Media representations also serve as vital bridges between people’s personal universes and daily experiences and the dispersed ways in which CC is discussed in the scientific community, in politics, and with public decision-makers (O’Neill et al. 2013).

The state of social consciousness on a particular topic at a particular time is reflected in media coverage, which influences how people speak, think, and act in routine sustainability practices. In terms of media coverage, CC remained an infrequent topic until the 1980s, gaining global public attention only after 1988 (Boykoff 2012, p. 48). After the turn of the 21st century, the frequency of media coverage of CC increased significantly, particularly in the lead-up to major international Climate Summits such as Copenhagen (2009) and Paris (2015), where treaties and action plans to mitigate and combat the global environmental challenge were discussed and signed (Anderson 2009, p. 21 cited in Ganapathy 2022, p. 1).

How the media frames and presents the climate change problem has a significant impact on how the public views and reacts to it. In addition to the media’s acknowledged importance, modern approaches have focused on the connection between communication and attitude modification (De Meyer et al. 2020).

This involves educating people on how they can mitigate the effects of climate change and guiding them through a self-persuasion process to discover environmentally sustainable actions. However, this encounters numerous barriers. Researchers have identified a number of factors that appear to diminish public engagement with climate change. The impacts of climate change are frequently viewed as ambiguous, remote, and irrelevant to daily life (Lorenzoni et al. 2007). In addition, the uncertainty and complexity of climate change, as well as the limitations of human perception and communication failures by scientists, create symbolic barriers to participation (Dilling and Moser 2004).

Moreover, the poverty of narratives and storytelling techniques used to communicate climate change exacerbates the problem. Most communications about the phenomenon tend to use the same language and overarching narrative, focusing on raising concern among their audience rather than promoting a positive and constructive message (De Meyer et al. 2020).

2. The Potential of Images: Qualities of Visual Content

We live in an “image-saturated society” in which images are an integral and ubiquitous part of everyday life. With the rise of digital technologies and social media, images are more prevalent and can be shared more readily than ever before. As a result, we are continuously bombarded with images, ranging from advertisements and news media to social media posts and personal photographs (Farkas et al. 2022; Maehle et al. 2022).

This image-saturated society has complex and multifaceted effects. On the one hand, images can be extremely effective communication tools capable of conveying complex sentiments and ideas in ways that text cannot. However, the relentless bombardment of images can also have negative effects. For instance, it can contribute to a feeling of information overload, making it challenging for viewers to comprehend and retain information.

Overall, the raising of an image-saturated society has had a profound impact on how we communicate, how we consume media, and how we understand the world around us (Zelizer 2010). As Hayes and O’Neill (2021) pointed out, “visual representations in the media play an understudied but influential role in shaping construction of meaning”. Given this, it is surprising that studies using text-based approaches continue to constitute the principal mode of research for climate change communication. By analyzing the function of images in contemporary media environments, we can gain a better understanding of these effects and develop strategies for navigating this complex and rapidly changing environment. We focus on the idea that images are not neutral statements or static representations of the world, but rather the promotion of particular messages and the reproduction of dominant social structures (Rose 2016 cited by Hayes and O’Neill 2021).

Although climate imagery has expanded gradually to the present day, the analysis of media communication on climate tends to focus exclusively on textual representations (O’Neill 2013), resulting in an extensive absence of empirical research examining the images used to communicate CC (O’Neill 2020). This prevalent neglect hinders our ability to understand how images and imagery coverage of climate events influence the production of narratives (DiFrancesco and Young 2011). This research aims to explore the visual dimensions of climate communication in an effort to address the identified gap on the assumption that visual communication is a fundamental tool in the current climate change communication given the emotional salience of visual information and the importance of affective components in the risk perception process (Smith and Joffe 2009).

Recognizing that visual dimensions are a crucial component of the narratives and genres that media cultivate, as well as the preferred language of a new generation of users, it is essential to examine how CC has been visually communicated (Wibeck 2014). Images enable and facilitate the construction of context and meaning in the representation of environmental issues (Nicholson-Cole 2005); they elicit emotions that can help interpret and add meaning to a complex topic (León and Erviti 2015); they attract the audience through vivid and emotional portrayals, facilitating both cognitive and affective processing (O’Neill 2013); moreover, when applied in the local context of a community, they have the potential to convey a sense of empowerment, potentially providing the audience with a sense of agency.

3. Framing: The Interpretative Frames Offered by the Media and the Importance of Visuals

Media framing aims to shape the relationship between audiences and our society’s social and structural problems. Entman (1993) defines framing as “the selection of some aspects of a perceived reality, making them more salient than the others in a communicative text, in such a way as to promote the definition of a particular problem, causal interpretation, moral evolution, and treatment recommendations.” Therefore, framing theory states that it is impossible to represent the totality of an issue and, as a result, certain aspects or viewpoints will be inevitably emphasized while others will be marginalized (Entman 1993).

In recent decades, media framing has been proposed as an interdisciplinary research topic (Stecula and Merkley 2019) due to its potential to substantially influence the interpretation of audiences and how they comprehend and respond to various challenges. The way the media provides coverage and assigns interpretive frames to climate science, framing the phenomenon from a certain point of view, strongly influences public understanding and interpretation as it determines what can be viewed as the core of the issue, highlights the actors who should be held accountable, and suggests solutions (Gamson and Modigliani 1989; Nisbet 2010).

According to Bolsen and Shapiro (2018, p. 156) “all forms of human communication, including information in news coverage of climate change, involve the necessary and inevitable selection of frames to shape how the public understands a social problem, issue, or event.” These frames, established through the images that represent a reported phenomenon, are interpretive plots that set in motion a particular line of thought; this is the inevitable process that Bolsen and Shapiro (2018) stated, and that Nisbet (2010, p. 15) reaffirmed, going further in his interpretation:

“Framing is an unavoidable reality of the communication process, especially when applied to public affairs and policy. There is no such thing as unframed information, and the most successful communicators are adept at framing, whether they use framing intentionally or intuitively.”

In the visual domain, previous studies have described a set of frames that frequently appear in media coverage of environmental problems and are prevalent in existing research on the types of framing used by the media to report on CC: ‘Government, Politics and Negotiation’, ‘Pandora’s Box/Frankenstein’s Monster’, ‘Morality and Ethics’, ‘Scientific Consensus/Uncertain Science’, ‘Self-Efficacy’, ‘Social Progress’, ‘Middle Way/Alternative paths’, ‘Environmental Consequences’, and ‘Economical Consequences’ (Nisbet and Huge 2006; Nisbet 2010; Rebich-Hespanha and Rice 2016; Bolsen and Shapiro 2018; Badullovich et al. 2020). Given the centrality of these types of frames in previous studies, we present in

Table 1. Visual frames identified by Rebich-Hespanha and Rice (2016).

Frame	How Climate Change Is Framed
Governance, Politics and Negotiation	It reinforces the vision that governments and political agendas are critical to defining and responding to climate change. It is often represented by images of politicians participating in national or international negotiation events.
Climate Science, Research and Scientists	It introduces climate science and the scientific community as important agents of definition for the climate change issue. Images often include both photographs of scientists or research material as well as diagrams illustrating aspects of the climate system (e.g., the greenhouse effect).
Monitoring and Quantifying	It emphasizes the view that empirical evidence supports the public’s understanding of environmental challenges and potential solutions. Images associated with this frame are frequently graphs, thematic maps, and diagrams.
Common People (sometimes vulnerable)	It focuses on humans but gives a multifaceted image of them as the subject of the frame. There are three possible dimensions: the common people who may experience or be vulnerable to the repercussions of CC or political decisions, the people who may be the audience for political, civic, or corporate leaders, and the people who may join in protests, rallies, or other related activities.
Industrial impact on the environment	It reinforces industrial development as a major cause of damage to the climate system. In general, the images include photographs and representations of industrial landscapes and smokestacks, for e.g., icons of the environmental destruction caused by industry.
Storms	It highlights the association of CC with devastating storms, reinforcing a sense of vulnerability and risk and the need for urgent action in response to the environmental crisis. It implies that the point of no return has already been reached and that it is now too late to act.
Impacts on polar animals and landscape	It emphasizes the hazards posed by climate change to polar species and ecosystems. These types of images, such as photographs of polar bears on small ice slabs and melting glaciers, have come to symbolize climate change visually.

a summary of the categories of visual frames that have supported media coverage of the environmental challenge, based mainly on Rebich-Hespanha and Rice (2016).

Rebich-Hespanha and Rice (2016) identified 15 visual frames in their research on the prevalent visual frames in news stories about CC. However, only seven categories of frames that appear to be prevalent in studies with the same research scope are presented in this summary table (Table 1). For example, the first frame identified in the table is present in all five of the previously identified papers, albeit under different titles: Government, Politics and Negotiation (Rebich-Hespanha and Rice 2016); Public Accountability and Governance (Nisbet 2010); Political Strategy and/or Conflict (Nisbet and Huge 2006); Political Conflict (Bolsen and Shapiro 2018; Badullovich et al. 2020).

4. The Role of Images in the Social Construction of Environmental Problems

According to media theory, the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” refers to the ability of visuals to reduce interpretive complexity by offering frames and mixing facts with emotions (DiFrancesco and Young 2011). In the context of war photography, Campbell (2007, p. 380 cited in O’Neill 2013) argues that photographs of refugees not only inform us about the millions of displaced people but also impose how we should feel. As Domke et al. (2002, p. 35) state, visuals provide important details that can convey the reality of a situation more effectively than words.

In the media, the process of visual framing is deeply ideological. Images, even if they do not portray an objective reality, are normative cultural objects that communicate a particular way of understanding a problem (Pearce et al. 2020). Images invite audiences to become emotionally involved in the contexts portrayed (Joffe 2008), making them effective media for the social construction of risk messages and “bringing the problem home” (DiFrancesco and Young 2011).

Visual discourse has also been the subject of study in some works on science communication in social media as digital platforms have established themselves as important channels for communicating about environmental issues. Some authors emphasize the importance and the decisive role of social media in bringing people psychologically closer to environmental problems, facilitating public awareness (Mavrodieva et al. 2019), and promoting actions to combat the effects of climate change (Bode and Vraga 2015). Zhang and Skoric (2018, p. 397) highlight the potential of social media to encourage civic participation in environmental problems, pointing out the inherent advantages of using these platforms to disseminate scientific knowledge, allow access to wide debate circles, and promote social mobilization in the adoption of more sustainable daily practices. Although they have not been included in the scope of the present research, the images used on social media to represent environmental issues constitute an essential dimension in the research on climate science communication, assuming that the effects of these images can be distinguished from those produced in traditional media (León et al. 2022, p. 977).

Images are undoubtedly key communication tools in environmental research, particularly in the media ecosystem, because they are colorful, vivid, and emotive (Joffe 2008). They allow the viewer to use the experiential processing system, which is holistic, intuitive, and effective (Epstein 1994), enabling faster processing of information and helping readers navigate potential risks more effectively (Leiserowitz 2006). Images can also transcend language or geographic barriers in communicating information to the public if readers share cultural references that allow this (Popp and Mendelson 2010).

5. Material and Methods

5.1. Objectives and Research Questions

The research seeks to analyze the visual dimension of the media communication of CC, focusing on the images used by the newspaper Público to report on events associated with the phenomenon. The research was structured based on two fundamental assumptions: (1) the media are viewed as important actors in influencing public awareness and opinions about climate change (O’Neill and Nicholson-Cole 2009; Schäfer and Painter 2020) and (2) visual representations of climate change are products of journalistic decisions and editorial policies of newsrooms, which empower particular voices and promote specific ways of framing environmental problems (while marginalizing other ways of seeing these problems).

More recently, studies that share the overall theme of this project—the communication of CC—have justified the importance of the images used to represent environmental challenges, dividing between those that seek to focus on the affective component and emotional dimension of images in the construction of public perception of risk (Lehman et al. 2019; Leiserowitz 2006; S. J. O’Neill et al. 2013; Smith and Joffe 2009) and those that focus on the role of images in the social and media construction of environmental problems (DiFrancesco and Young 2011; León and Erviti 2015; O’Neill 2020; Pearce et al. 2020; Smith and Joffe 2009). Although it does not ignore the natural relevance of emotional and affective elements for the study of the imagetic dimension of CC, the present research prioritizes the study of the image as a fundamental element for the media framing of the phenomenon, following the thematic focus of these previous works.

The research questions stand as follows:

• What kinds of visual frames are used in the Portuguese press to frame Climate Change? Is there a dominating form of framing?
• Have significant changes in the visual framing of Climate Change been identified over the past two decades of the 21st century?

Our primary objective is to evaluate the visual context given to the phenomenon of CC in the Portuguese press by analyzing news images and journalistic narratives. By extending the period of analysis to approximately twenty-two years of media coverage of the phenomenon, we add depth and historical perspective to our current understanding of the images that have been used to communicate the great environmental challenge, focusing on the evolution of visual framing.

5.2. Data Collection and Sampling

Given Portugal’s vulnerability to the risk of forest fires and the fact that it is one of the nations most hit by this sort of extreme phenomena, the study of the media’s portrayal of climate change in Portugal is particularly pertinent (Lusa 2022). The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Portugal decreased by 5% between 1980 and 2020 as a result of catastrophic weather events, making Portugal one of the nations with the largest economic impact over the past 40 years (Lusa 2022).

Público, a prestige newspaper, was chosen as representative of the Portuguese press for the following reasons:

• National reach: it has a large readership across the country and has the greatest proportion of exclusively digital readers. This makes it a good choice for studying how a particular issue is communicated to a broad audience.
• Editorial policies: A prestige newspaper, like Público, will have consistently maintained well-established editorial policies that guide how news stories are covered and how images are selected. This makes it easier to analyze how the media framing of an issue, such as climate change, evolves over time.
• Comparability: Focusing on a single reference newspaper, we can make meaningful comparisons across different time periods and between different types of news stories. This can help to identify patterns in media framing that may not be apparent when studying multiple newspapers.
• Reputation: Público has a good reputation and is trusted by its readers. In addition, Público launched, in April 2022, a section titled “Azul” that is dedicated to the climate crisis and complex issues related to climate and biodiversity and aims to provide readers with more and deeper keys for reflection on and understanding of the challenges presented by the climate crisis.

After selecting the Público newspaper as the object of study and designing the methodological path to accomplish the objectives of the research, we used the newspaper’s online platform to collect data on news articles and accompanying images. We defined the analysis period as between January 2000 and May 2022 and accessed the data through the newspaper’s online archive service using the terms “Global Warming,” “Climate Change,” and “Climate Crisis.” The search term “Global Warming” OR “Climate Change” OR “Climate Crisis” yielded 719 articles, including news, chronicles, interviews, photo galleries, and reports with at least one image attached, for analysis. Consequently, the total sample size (N) was 1010 images.

5.3. (Visual) Frames Examination

We opted for content analysis as the methodology for this study in order to obtain an overview of the imagery used to convey climate change-related events. According to Bell (2004, p. 27), content analysis of images is frequently used in social science research to provide background maps of the visual representation domain and present broad pictures of the thematic trends of the visual dimension based on the variables and their values when applied to each analyzed image.

In this study, we used content analysis to examine the visual representations used in newspapers’ coverage of CC. We developed a coding scheme that consisted of 2 categories: year of publication and framing. The framing category itself was further subdivided into eight distinct types or frames.

The images were subjected to a systematic analysis that involved identifying and categorizing them according to the categories. The eight frames provided in the typology likely represent eight distinct approaches to framing the subject matter of the images, each with its own set of characteristics and attributes. This typology was developed based on the five studies mentioned in Section 3 (Nisbet and Huge 2006; Nisbet 2010; Rebich-Hespanha and Rice 2016; Bolsen and Shapiro 2018; Badullovich et al. 2020). These studies were selected because they were frequently cited in comparable research and spanned a substantial time frame: from 2006 to 2020. The authors synthesized the data from these studies to construct a new typology of six frames, to which they later added two more based on the frequent occurrence of certain image types that had not fit within the previous frames. The classification of frames is shown in

Table 2. Types of frames applied in the visual coverage of Climate Change.

Frame	How the Issue Is Framed
Governance, Political Negotiation, and Economic Effects	Focus on broad national or supranational discussions and debates, public policy-making, and the responsiveness of political institutions; processes such as participation, action, and political decision-making are emphasized; geopolitical conflict, social relations of production, the circulation and distribution of goods, and the economic effects of CC and political action are frequently present.
Conflict	Focus on the broad concept of conflict, wherein ideas, sentiments, or interests collide; conflict can be politicized with the mobilization of activist groups that speak out against the status quo and demand political and economic measures to address the issue; on the other hand, human–nature conflict is enhanced by the excessive consumption of natural resources and by a mechanistic view of nature on the human part.
Adaptation, Mitigation, and Self-Efficacy	Focus on self-efficacy and climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies; self-efficacy focuses on behavioral changes (individual or group-based) and the adoption of sustainable habits, and can also focus on external efficacy, which refers to the responsiveness of business leaders or high-level social figures; this type of framework also addresses the replacement of fossil fuels and the related aspects of energy transition.
Public Engagement, Environmental Awareness, and Alternative Paths	Focus on public engagement, promoting environmental literacy through educational mechanisms and alternative paths that attempt to be in balance with, rather than dominate, nature; it highlights, sometimes, a human narrative from a common citizen or the collective action of a local community; it explores the moral and ethical issues that drive action to tackle climate change.
Consensus and Scientific Uncertainty	Focus on the discussion between scientific statements and the uncertainties regarding causality relations; on the one hand, it tries to argue in favor of a generalized consensus of the scientific community, and on the other hand, it highlights the uncertainties regarding the complexity of the phenomenon of CC; the double issue of monitoring and quantification is also added, which reinforces the debate using graphics, thematic maps, and other visual representations.
Pandora’s Box and Human Vulnerability	Focus on the need for precaution and action against possible disasters and the dramatizing of the effects of CC, reinforcing a sense of fear, vulnerability, or inability to deal with the problem; it focuses on devastating storms, the environmental devastation caused by industry, and the severe effects that result from climate change such as air pollution, environmental disasters, fires, and the extinction of species; in any of the scenarios, humanity breaks down against the challenge it faces. There is also an implicit dimension of future impact, with the demonstration of unmanageable consequences and the release of severe effects.
Aesthetizing Nature, Biodiversity, and Landscape	Focus on the romantic view of nature and the poetic image of biodiversity, appealing to the empathetic relationship of the viewer with a beautiful nature in danger of extinction; this framing promotes self-awareness and reflection, highlighting the eventual absence of a landscape that once pleased the viewer or the beauty of animals facing the risk of extinction.
Visual Synecdoches and Iconography	Focus on images that often serve as visual portrayals to represent CC and have been established, over the years, as visual shortcuts used to convey a message that is immediately understood by the viewer. In this frame we consider only the images of polar bears, polar icecaps, and glaciers, assigning other frames to icons such as smokestacks for their relevance in terms of visual meaning. A visual synecdoche encapsulates the impacts of climate change on, for e.g., polar bears as an illustration of the much wider impacts of climate change (O’Neill 2022).

.

The example1 of a prototype image for each of the frames considered is presented in Figure 1.

A list of figures is used to explain what types of images were considered for each of the frames:

• Subfigure A—Official Opening Ceremony of the Climate Summit COP 24 and Leaders’ Summit in Katowice|UNclimatechange (2018)|Source: Flickr.
• Subfigure B—DC Climate March on 29 April 2017|Mark Dixon (2017)|Source: Climate Visuals (Climate Outreach).
• Subfigure C—Citibikes in New York City|New York City Department of Transportation (2015)|Source: Climate Visuals (Climate Outreach).
• Subfigure D—A man on a makeshift floating platform collecting discarded plastic bags from River Yamuna in Delhi (India)|K Koshi (2007)|Source: Climate Visuals (Climate Outreach).
• Subfigure E—past drought and predictions based on the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI)|U.S. Department of Agriculture|Source: Flickr.
• Subfigure F—Kenya: drought leaves dead and dying animals in northern Kenya|Oxfam International (2004)|Source: Climate Visuals (Climate Outreach).
• Subfigure G—Aerial of too much water at Alligator River|U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters (2009)|Source: Flickr.
• Subfigure H—Greenland, the dilemma of ice: a man and boat push an iceberg through the water so that it does not drag down their fishing nets|Turpin Samuel (2017)|Source: Climate Visuals (Climate Outreach).

6. Results

6.1. The Frames That Dominate the Visual Narratives

Figure 2 reveals that the Pandora’s Box and Human Vulnerability frame dominates the press’ portrayal of the climate change issue, accounting for 35.5% of all instances of images on CC. This frame emphasizes the need for precaution and action in the face of potential catastrophes, dramatizing the effects of climate change and instilling a sense of anxiety and vulnerability and a perceived inability to effectively address the issue.

The frames ‘Conflict,’ ‘Aesthetization of Nature, Biodiversity, and Landscape,’ and ‘Governance, Political Negotiation, and Economic Effects’ occupy the second, third, and fourth positions, respectively. In the structuring of the issue, these frames are utilized with nearly the same frequency and are accorded roughly the same proportion of weight. The ‘Conflict’ frame depicts confrontations between ideas, emotions, or interests that can be politicized through the mobilization of activists or groups articulating their positions. Moreover, the ‘Conflict’ framework includes the human–nature conflict, which is exacerbated by humans’ mechanistic view of nature.

The frame Consensus and Scientific Uncertainty, which focuses on the debate between scientific statements and uncertainties regarding causality relationships, is represented by graphics and images of scientists and researchers and occupies an intermediate position in terms of frequency, appearing 67 times in total.

Less frequently used in the visual framing of the issue are the frames represented by images of solutions and behavior change (Adaptation, Mitigation, and Self-Efficacy), images that focus on public involvement and the adoption of alternatives (Public Engagement, Environmental Awareness, and Alternative Pathways), and visual representations of climate change icons and symbols (Visual Synecdoches and Iconography). These three frames make up only 13.9% of the overall visual framework.

6.2. The Evolution of the Visual Representation over the Last 20 Years

The visual coverage of CC over the last twenty-two years (January 2000–May 2022) was not exactly consistent, alternating between significant increases and some decreases over time. If we consider the visual coverage by year, 2018 and 2019 were the years with the most media attention of CC, with 140 and 137 images, respectively, equivalent to 27.5% of the total coverage of the phenomenon. On the other hand, the period 2000–2005 recorded only 35 images that were used to represent CC, and these images constituted 3.5% of the volume of visual coverage. The data allows us to observe a significant discrepancy between the numbers recorded in the first decade and the volume of media coverage in the second decade of the current century, ranging from 9 images (in 2001) to 140 images (in 2018).

Considering, on the one hand, the low representativeness of the visual coverage in some years and, on the other hand, the extensive nature of the defined analysis period, we decided to group the years to make the analysis more feasible and easier to read (Figure 3).

Our analysis revealed a significant surge in the visual coverage of climate change during the 2006–2010 period, with 99 more images compared to the previous period (2000–2005). This notable peak in media attention aligns with Downs’ (1972) theory of the ‘problem attention cycle’. According to this theory, media attention experiences a resurgence after an initial phase of low interest as new events unfold. In the case of climate change, this increase in media attention can be attributed to significant events such as the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg (2006), the release of Al Gore’s influential documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006), the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the IPCC and Al Gore (2007), the 15th edition of the COP in Copenhagen (2009), and the Climategate2 scandal that shook the scientific community (2009). These events captured public and media attention, leading to a heightened focus on climate change during that period.

The most recent six years, including 2017–2019 and 2020–2022, account for 63.3% of the total visual coverage of CC. This observation suggests two plausible inferences. In the first place, the inclusion of climate science as an important issue on political and scientific agendas has attracted more interest. This indicates that the media has progressively accorded climate change greater importance. In recent years, the number of recorded images has more than tripled compared to the previous decade’s total (223 images in 2000–2013 compared to 787 images in 2014–2022).

6.3. The Evolution of Visual Frames over Time

In this section, we will analyze the historical evolution of visual framing modes given to the CC phenomenon, discussing and reflecting on the most relevant changes over the years.

Regarding the first research question, “What kinds of visual frames are used in the Portuguese press to frame Climate Change? Is there a dominating form of framing?”, we conclude that Pandora’s Box and Human Vulnerability is the most prevalent form of framing, accounting for 35.5% of the press’ visual framing of climate change.

This framing frequently depicts climate change as calamitous, with devastating consequences for nature and human populations. Other frames, such as ‘Conflict,’ ‘Aestheticization of Nature, Biodiversity, and Landscape,’ and ‘Governance, Political Negotiation, and Economic Effects,’ which are the second, third, and fourth most frequent, are also used frequently, as shown in Figure 4.

Regarding the second question, “Have significant changes in the visual framing of Climate Change been identified over two decades of the 21st century?”, several trends can be observed. After peaking in 2017–2019, the frame Governance, Political Negotiation, and Economic Effects has steadily declined, indicating a diminished emphasis on the political dimensions of climate change. In contrast, the frames ‘Adaptation, Mitigation, and Self-Efficacy’ and ‘Public Engagement, Environmental Awareness, and Alternative Pathways’ have experienced substantial development over the past three years, indicating a new narrative and approach to framing the issue. Similarly, the concept of the Aestheticization of Nature, Biodiversity, and Landscape has exploded in recent years. Nonetheless, the frame Pandora’s Box and Human Vulnerability, exemplified by images such as industrial smokestacks and the aftermath of natural disasters, has dominated throughout the period analyzed (2000–2022).

The advantage of the historical–comparative analysis that this research sought to develop is that it allows us to go further in the interpretations about the visual framing of CC. Although 35.5% of the visual framing, between January 2000 and May 2022, corresponds to the type of frame that dramatizes the effects of CC and promotes a feeling of fear and vulnerability (Pandora’s Box and Human Vulnerability), it is important to highlight the decrease of this frame by 17.7% between the beginning of the 21st century and the period 2020–2022. On the other hand, the results show that the media’s disinvestment in the dramatic and demoralizing narrative is being caused by the significant commitment to communicate solutions and promote environmental literacy, as 13.4% of the visual framings were redirected to the frame ‘Public Engagement, Environmental Awareness, and Alternative Pathways’ between 2000–2005 (0 images) and 2020–2022 (37 images).

By comparing the framing of the earlier years (2000–2005) with the more recent years (2020–2022), we can conclude that to the detriment of a sharp decrease in the frames Pandora’s Box and Human Vulnerability (−17.7% in 2020–2022) and Visual Synecdoches and Iconography (−2.5% in 2020–2022), the frames ‘Adaptation, Mitigation, and Self-Efficacy’ and ‘Public Engagement, Environmental Awareness, and Alternative Pathways’ gained frequent places in the media framing, growing significantly by 2.9% and 13.4% in 2020–2022, respectively.

7. Conclusions

In conclusion, this research project sought to contribute to the underdeveloped field of visual communication within the scope of CC by analyzing the visual coverage of the Público newspaper between January 2000 and May 2022. Despite the limitation of analyzing images from only one national newspaper, the results obtained allow for some generalizations about the modes of representation and visual framing of CC in the Portuguese press.

The study discovered that the visual coverage of climate change is thematically dominated by the impacts and effects of changes in the climate system, frequently in the form of images that promote a narrative distant from the majority of human populations. Nonetheless, there is a positive trend toward the dissemination of information regarding implementable solutions to environmental challenges.

7.1. Sensationalist Narrative: Pandora’s Box Frame and Human Vulnerability

This way of framing the issue has been promoted in the press, regardless of the growing theories that say that dramatic, sensationalist, frightening, and shocking narratives, while they may capture individual attention, promote a sense of powerlessness that disengages the public from taking action (O’Neill and Nicholson-Cole 2009). The choice of this interpretive framework appears intended to reinforce human vulnerability, often invoking human brokenness in the face of a challenge that is close to reaching the point of no return. The idea that it is too late to act is often emphasized.

Although the numbers illustrate the dominant course over the years, the most recent period may indicate a major decline, as the percentage weight it assumed in 2017–2019 (41.2%) decreased by 7.5% in the most recent years (2020–2022). Whether this decline demonstrates a new tendency to explore other dimensions in framing the issue—opting for approaches that promote positive emotions and the individual capacity to combat environmental problems—or whether it is merely coincidental will have to be analyzed with data from the coming years, which may even motivate future research.

7.2. The Politicization of Climate Change and the Idea of Conflict

Although this type of frame is still used regularly, it appears to be overtaken by other ways of communicating the problem. This could indicate two trends: first, that the framing of the climate change issue is becoming less centered on images of political figures and government actions, and second, that intergovernmental conferences and international cooperation events are receiving less media attention compared to alternative ways of communicating the issue. O’Neill et al. (2013) theorize that the visual politicization of climate science is likely to cause a generalized disaffection and sense of fatigue in some audiences, which may account for this decline.

Similarly, the Conflict frame follows the same pattern as the Governance frame, with the maximum percentage weight (20.4%) in 2014–2016 being followed by a gradual decrease. This frame frequently contains both images of protests and activist actions as well as images highlighting the human–nature conflict wherein there is an absence of harmony between the two entities.

In conclusion, both categories of framing have been declining in prevalence since their respective peaks in 2014–2016. However, the politicized climate change frame shrunk to a much greater extent.

7.3. Solutions as Visual Framing

The use of two visual framing modalities, ‘Adaptation, Mitigation, and Self-Efficacy’ and ‘Public Engagement, Environmental Awareness, and Alternative Pathways’, has increased significantly over the past three years. The former increased consistently from 2014–2016, going from zero images in 2006–2010 to sixteen images in 2020–2022. In 2020–2022, the latter saw a significant increase of 10.7% over the preceding period. This trend reflects recent media efforts to visually communicate aspects related to the individual and collective ability to combat climate change (e.g., images on alternative agriculture, sustainable mobility, forest restoration, renewable energy sources, alternative energy sources, food waste control, product recycling, and second-hand shopping). This positive shift counters the demoralizing perspective that still prevails in the modes of representation and visual framing. Bolsen and Shapiro (2018, p.156) consider this trend as fostering a sense of positive self-efficacy and generating public engagement, awareness, and action on the problem.

7.4. Scientific Knowledge: Searching for a Common Ground

Despite not being one of the most common framing categories, the Consensus and Scientific Uncertainty frame has seen a rise in volume representation from 2017–2019. This frame centers primarily on the debate between scientific claims and objections from certain groups and employs graphs, thematic maps, and images of researchers and scientists as its primary visual elements. The composition of these images is meant to reinforce the notion that scientists play a prominent role in defining the problem. The constant association of the scientific community with documenting and predicting the causes and effects of climate change may, however, make it difficult for audiences to relate to these types of images.

7.5. Aestheticization of Nature and Metamorphosis of the Landscape

In the past three years, the frame that focuses on the poetic image of biodiversity, appealing to the viewer’s empathetic relationship with nature, and encouraging in-depth reflection on the evidence that threatens natural environments has experienced a slight increase in volume and a significant increase in percentage. In this frame (Aesthetization of Nature, Biodiversity, and Landscape), the prevalence of images depicting the majesty of animals and landscapes aims to draw attention to the threat of extinction and the transformation of the landscape. In contrast to other frames, the sense of devastation is implicit and is prompted by a future examination of what the image intends to represent.

Nevertheless, and overall, the results of this study suggest the need for a more diversified and balanced visual communication of CC in the Portuguese press, with more emphasis on solutions and positive narratives that can promote public understanding and engagement.

After presenting the main conclusions, it is important to acknowledge that analyzing images can be a complex task, as visual content often produces multiple meanings. To ensure some objectivity in content analysis, researchers often resort to intercoder reliability to demonstrate the rigor of coding procedures in data analysis. However, due to time and operational constraints, the authors chose to discuss the analysis of a reduced sample of images together, which served to minimize the subjectivity inherent in visual content analysis.

While the research provided insights into how the Portuguese press visually communicates CC, the study did not examine how people relate to the different images used. Future research may explore this dimension, including the emotional component, to determine how the Portuguese population reacts to the various images referred to in this study.

Additionally, the study only considered images from the Público newspaper. Therefore, future work on the subject should combine an organizational comparison with an evolutionary approach, analyzing the modes of visual representation with historical and journalistic depth and identifying possible trends that were left unexplored in this study. As a complementary work, it may also be interesting to evaluate the relationship between the sources of images and national newspapers, identifying the origin of the visual content that is given to journalistic genres and evaluating its influence on the types of images used.