Conceptual framing of Donald Trump in the context of climate change in The Guardian and The Sun

Abstract

Climate change-related debates are ongoing in the UK media. The (re)election of Donald Trump as the US president motivated a rigorous critique of his views on climate change by the left-leaning UK media. Studying such debates is crucial as they influence people's perception of climate change. So far, there is little research on how left-leaning UK newspapers respond to Donald Trump’s sceptical views on climate change. Discourse metaphors provide a useful framework for studying climate change-related debates in the media, as they are often used as rhetorical tools, allowing an author to conceptually frame an issue in a preferred way. This thesis aims to contribute to the research on climate change representation in the UK media by analysing discourse metaphors used to conceptually frame Donald Trump in the leading UK newspapers. Relying on the Conceptual Metaphors Theory (Lakoff and Johnson 1980) and the work by Zinken et al (2008) on discourse metaphors, this thesis analyses metaphors used to conceptually frame Donald Trump in the context of climate change in the UK newspapers The Guardian and The Sun. Articles published in the period from Donald Trump’s presidential victory to his inauguration were read. Metaphorical expressions in the articles conceptually framing Donald Trump were identified and analysed using Critical Metaphors Analysis (Charteris-Black 2004). This thesis is divided into two sections. Section one establishes the theoretical background, defines relevant terminology, reviews relevant studies, and introduces the implications for this thesis. Section two provides a detailed description of the methodology used, reports the number and purposes of the metaphors analysed and discusses the findings.