Framing Climate Change in Pakistani Newspapers: A Comparative Study of Dawn and The News (Jan–Aug 2025)

Abstract

The research is mainly qualitative; simple frequency data and percentages were employed to support the analysis, providing it with a mixed-method nature and qualitative content analysis to examine how two of the leading English-language newspapers in Pakistan, Dawn and The News International, covered climate change over a more active period between January and August 2025. The results indicate that there was a great dependency on the Scientific/Environmental narrative that explained almost 70 per cent of the articles reviewed. Such coverage concentrated a lot on the effects, scientific reasons, as well as environmental hazards of climatic events. The second most common (approximately 24 per cent) were political narratives, which generally focused on government action, a policy debate or institutional obligation. It is important to note that the coverage had virtually no religious framing. Regarding individual dimensions of framing, the Economic Consequences and Human Interest dimensions were used most often, with 1/3 of the total articles being used in the newspapers. Such a high focus reveals that the media focused on the financial expenses and human suffering due to climate change. The next frame was the Responsibility Attribution, where in approximately 20% of the stories this occurred, and the last frame was the Conflict frame, which occurred in approximately 7% of the stories. Comparative analysis showed that the editorial variations were that Dawn covered more context-driven, policy-focused and more detailed stories, as it is perceived as the oldest national newspaper in the country. The News International, which is one of the major privately owned newspapers, favoured brief reporting that was more event-based. Irrespective of these differences, the general media strategy was reactive. The coverage during crises was high, but did not sustain an active, proactive, and solution-based discussion, which validates previous sources that indicate that the Pakistani media has serious weaknesses in the approach to dealing with this vital matter. When it comes to coverage of climate change, framing is what defines whether the problem is framed as a scientific problem, a political issue and an environmental crisis. In this research article, the framing theory is implemented to evaluate the coverage of climate change in the newspapers like Dawn and the News international and the dominant frames in their coverage. The insufficient focus on the adaptation, mitigation and solution-focused journalism highlights the necessity to have more robust, coherent, and scientifically based climate coverage to enhance national resilience.