Frames and Their Affective Dimensions: A Case Study of Climate Change News Articles

Aman Tyagi, Kenneth Joseph, Kathleen M. Carley

Abstract: News articles shared on social media platforms could be framed in ways such that specific points are emphasized or de-emphasized to create confusion on scientific facts. In this work, we use policy frames suggested by Boydstun et al., 2014 to find frames used in over 810k climate change news articles shared on Twitter by news agencies. Moreover, we present a method to find affective dimensions, namely Evaluation (good vs. bad), Potency (strong vs. weak), and Activity (active vs. passive), of the frames. Our results suggest that news articles about climate change are predominantly framed as related to policy issues in the context of a social group’s traditions, customs, or values. We also conclude that frames are not reshared based on their affect. Lastly, we present implications for the increasingly relevant climate change communication research.