ABSTRACT
This chapter places media coverage of climate change in the wider context of the scholarship of social problems and agenda systems. Theorists in these areas are concerned with the question of how and why some issues rise to the top of the public and policy agenda. Some models, such as the punctuated equilibrium model (Jones and Baumgartner, 2012), the public arenas model (Hilgartner and Bosk, 1988), and the multiple streams model (Kingdon, 1995), suggest that dormant social problems require a focusing event and feedback in order to attract attention. It is argued that these models do not allow for sufficient influence and agency on the part of the media. The mediated issue development model (Nisbet and Huge, 2006), however, takes appropriate account of the role the media play in such agenda systems.
