Rebel with a cause: the framing of climate change and intergenerational justice in the German press treatment of the Fridays for Future protests

This study investigates the representation of the Fridays for Future strikes in the German online newspapersBild.de, Zeit OnlineandFAZ.net. Through a qualitative and quantitative content analysis over the time period August 2018 to March 2019, eight frames have been identified. WhereasZeit Onlineshows a framing towards intergenerational justice, the coverage ofFAZ.netandBild.destrongly adheres to the protest paradigm. The majority of all articles guarantees protesters a voice, but this voice is often reduced to apolitical testimonies and the protesters' self-agency is undermined through disparagement. German media coverage thus tends to reproduce existing power structures by marginalizing and depoliticizing the political agenda of a system critical protest. Although this framing feeds into the shift of the climate change discourse towards adaptation, the study shows that the idea of climate change as an issue of intergenerational justice and children's rights has become part of the media's agenda.

Automated summary

The German online newspapers studied in the research approach the coverage of the Fridays for Future strikes with two main framing: intergenerational justice and the protest paradigm. While protesters are granted a voice in the majority of articles, this voice is often reduced to political testimonies and undermined through disparagement, reproducing existing power structures.