ABSTRACT
An understanding of how the media operate in general is a necessary step towards understanding how they operate in relation to climate change. This chapter presents and analyses general theories of media systems, normative theories of the press, newsroom ethnography, journalistic norms, and news values. An assessment of how the media have responded to climate change as a journalistic topic is then presented, and it is argued that the academic study of media coverage of climate change has failed to shake off its origins in science communications and that perspectives from journalists and from inside the newsroom are lacking.
