U.S. television news coverage of climate change policy is aggregately balanced but polarized | CU Experts

Abstract; U.S. news media have been criticized for having false balance in their coverage of climate change science. Historically, news segments overrepresented views contrary to scientific consensus, though recent evidence suggests this false balance has lessened. Here, we assess the balance of positive and negative views of climate change policies, compared to public opinion, in news coverage from seven major U.S. television networks. By this measure, we find aggregately balanced coverage: positive and negative views of policy are represented roughly proportionately to public opinion. However, we find that two-thirds of news segments about climate change do not mention policy at all. Additionally, some news networks are highly polarized in their coverage, especially Fox News and CNN. Comparing these results to contemporaneous survey data on U.S media diets suggests that many Americans consume biased media coverage of climate change policy views, even if coverage is not biased on the aggregate.

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