Conveying the crisis: A corpus-assisted analysis of how left- and right-leaning UK newspapers frame the green energy transition

Yingnian Tao and Mark Ryan
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Yingnian Tao: Lancaster University

No dn8cp_v2, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: The green energy transition has recently become a hot topic in public and policy debates in the UK. This study employs corpus-assisted analysis to examine how the green energy transition is represented in left-leaning and right-leaning UK newspapers (2015-2024). Specifically, we identified the temporal changes in frequencies of emotional reporting and analysed and compared five group of strong emotion words (represented by crisis, damage, greenwashing, catastrophe, and wealth) through collocation analysis and concordance analysis. Our findings indicate that although the sentiment of coverage is more positive than negative, negative sentiment is gradually increasing over time. Both sides cover environmental and economic aspects of the transition; however, they differ in their priority area and the way they engage with these areas. Left-leaning newspapers emphasise environmental degradation, blame fossil fuels for the climate crisis, and call for urgent action. Right-leaning newspapers focus more on the economic impacts of transition, often framing policies as threats to jobs or prosperity while downplaying accountability for emissions. Across the spectrum, reporting tends to adopt a techno-optimist, business-as-usual stance that rarely challenges the idea of continuous economic growth. Implications for media, readers, and policymakers are discussed.

Date: 2026-07-31
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:dn8cp_v2

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/dn8cp_v2

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