Framing Climate Change in India: A Thematic Analysis of News Headlines 2016-2022

Author(s)	Ms. Geetika Vashishata, Prof. Umesh Arya
Country	India
Abstract	Climate stories play A significant role in shaping public awareness and making pro-climate policies, yet the distribution of thematic attention remains uneven in climate discourse of India. This study examines the prominence of critical environmental themes present in headlines across a dataset of 1,276 climate-based stories, derived from digitally from 2016-2022. Employing quantitative thematic frequency analysis, the study reveals a highly skewed, long-tail distribution dominated by broad climate-related frames. The theme "Climate Change" emerged as an extreme outlier (8.2%, z = 3.43), capturing over four times the expected attention, while "Air Pollution" was the only other strongly over-represented topic (4.9%, z = 1.63). In contrast, narrower issues such as indoor air quality, legal actions, and health-oriented solutions were significantly under-represented. These patterns align with global trends in media and public concern, where climate change functions as an umbrella narrative that marginalises localized pollution types, adaptation strategies, and human health dimensions.
Keywords	Environment, Climate discourse, Pollution, Public awareness, Thematic analysis
Field	Sociology > Journalism / Media
Published In	Volume 7, Issue 6, November-December 2025
Published On	2025-12-24
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i06.64414

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