Shifting semantics: A longitudinal study of keywords in climate change reporting

Mikkel Fugl Eskjær; Florian Meier

doi:10.2478/nor-2026-0004

Figures & Tables

Yearly distribution of climate change news

Yearly distribution of “climate change”, “global warming”, and “greenhouse effect”

Similarities and differences among top 50 words of each keyword and phase Comments: Being a mirrored heatmap, the figure shows only the upper triangle.

Three phases of sampling period

1. (1990–2000)			2. (2001–2010)			3. (2011–2021)

Articles = 2,444 Unique word stems = 4,706 Total number of words = 1,675,727 Greenhouse effect (GE) = 2,987 Climate change (CC) = 624 Global warming (GW) = 731			Articles = 15,824 Unique word stems = 14,565 Total number of words = 10,516,172 Greenhouse effect (GE) = 2,892 Climate change (CC) = 15,104 Global warming (GW) = 13,584			Articles = 28,194 Unique word stems = 24,824 Total number of words = 24,587,165 Greenhouse effect (GE) = 950 Climate change (CC) = 37,644 Global warming (GW) = 13,163

GE	GW	CC	GE	GW	CC	GE	GW	CC

global warming climate change global man-made acid rain increased neutralize greenhouse effect increase population explosion earth rise runaway Over-population burning perhaps consequence doubtful serious threatening	climatic change climate change man-made greenhouse effect heating temperature rise emission increase global water level increase greenhouse effect pollution greenhouse gas cooling climate catastrophe increased runaway noticeable desertification	climatic change global warming man-made serious greenhouse effect climate initiative shift desertification warming change follow temperature rise catastrophe flooding increase desertification greenhouse effect destroy erosion	man-made warming global warming increased climate change atmosphere feedback mechanism carbon dioxide warming greenhouse gas water vapor nitrous oxide gas climate change carbon dioxide emission methane greenhouse gas effect ozone layer	climate change man-made greenhouse effect climate change warming problem greenhouse gas adverse impact global climate problem climate severity superheating emission deny CO₂ theory lie consequence destabilizing climate heating	global warming climate change climate man-made greenhouse effect global problem consequence seriousness against security issue nature catastrophe environmental problem future trans-border over-population terrorism adverse impact destabilizing world	atmosphere warming climate gas greenhouse gas carbon dioxide man-made thermal radiation heating water vapor cloud formation methane CO₂ volume greenhouse gas gas [gasart] CO₂ containing gas [luftart] emission concentration nitrous oxide Svensmark	man-made climate change warming climatic change man-made greenhouse effect temperature rise degree planet emission desertification greenhouse gas over-population global climate crisis weather phenomenon ice melting counterevidence weather event unavoidable	global warming man-made problem climate change climate overpopulation climate catastrophe environmental pollution challenge lack of resources consequence environmental damage climate challenges desertification weather conditions influx of refugees migration soil exhaustion oppose population explosion

Shifting semantics: A longitudinal study of keywords in climate change reporting

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Figure 2

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Figure 4

Three phases of sampling period

Paradigm

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