Protecting the Gulf: Climate change coverage in GCC print media

This paper explores the range and type of coverage that climate change has received over a five-year period in the English-language press in the six member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Using a coding scheme that has been successfully employed in previous research, the coverage is examined based on several factors, for example, the dominant frame of the story, the number of stories and word count, which sources are quoted, and whether or not blame is attributed. As the salience of the issue ebbs and flows in the world press and for global populations, examining coverage in the regional press of supranational organizations (such as the EU, ASEAN, and the GCC) represents another interesting avenue for research as the potential for future conflict among nations resulting from climate change becomes more of a reality. Results show that climate change receives varied coverage in the Gulf press; researchers and government officials tend to be used as sources; roughly half of the sampled articles mention risks and discuss potential solutions. The stories tend to revolve around energy, conservation, and weather-related topics, while at the same time approximately half mention “man” as to blame for the problem.