Think tanks, lobbies and experts as sources in the coverage of climate change in the newspaper El País

Abstract

Public relations have emerged as a key field for managing public perception in the context of combating climate change. They can play a critical role in communicating the causes of the climate crisis, an area traditionally perceived as serving corporate interests. However, the actions of interest groups can not only enhance public understanding and engagement but also foster a proactive approach to climate challenges.

Among their strategies to gain influence in public decision-making, interest groups offer themselves as sources to the media. The main objective of this study is to characterize the presence of interest groups as journalistic sources in climate change coverage in the Spanish newspaper El País, compared to other sources such as politicians, scientists, and activists. The hypothesis proposed is that interest groups have a greater presence than ecological activism in climate change coverage. Regarding interest groups, distinctions are made between think tanks, lobbies, and independent experts, considering the specific climate change topic in which they focus their strategic action and their spatial scope of influence.

The results show that interest groups constitute the primary source type for journalists covering climate change, following political, governmental, and institutional sources, representing 29,3% of the 300 sources observed. The total of interest groups—which includes lobbies, think tanks, and experts—reaches a significant 27,9%. Within this percentage, lobbies stand out at 15.3%, above experts (7,7%) and think tanks (5%). Science is represented in 13.7% of the climate change pieces, above NGOs and activism, which together account for 10.7%. The prominent presence of interest groups is also notable in the international context, especially in Latin America, given El País’s ‘America’ edition, which provides coverage in countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina. The analysis of the spatial context of the journalistic pieces shows that nearly half of the analyzed news items have an international focus, followed by coverage of topics in Latin America and the Caribbean. Together, these account for almost eighty percent of the analyzed sample.

The predominance of interest groups over ecological activism as actors in the climate narrative reflects various factors, most notably the former's capacity to professionalize their communication and develop persuasive strategies that facilitate their inclusion in the media as legitimate and authoritative sources. In contrast, ecological activism faces more challenges in accessing the media and establishing itself as a recurring source. This situation has significant implications for the plurality of voices in the climate change debate. Prioritizing the arguments promoted by think tanks and lobbies can create a bias in the coverage toward certain types of solutions, limiting other alternative interpretations that emphasize the structural causes of the climate crisis to propose alternative solutions. In fact, appearances of pieces focusing on the causes of climate change featuring interest groups are minimal in the analyzed sample, compared to those centered on impacts or solutions: half of the pieces in which think tanks, lobbies, or experts appear are linked to economic or technological solutions to the climate crisis. The causes of climate change, with only 1.8% of the coverage, are notably underrepresented.