"ENDURE A HEATWAVE" OR "ENJOY A HEATWAVE"? - Representation of Heatwaves in the British News Sites the Guardian and Daily Mail Elisa Heikkilä - Trepo
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1
Elisa Heikkilä
”ENDURE A HEATWAVE” OR ”ENJOY A
HEATWAVE”?
Representation of Heatwaves in the British News Sites the
Guardian and Daily Mail
Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
Bachelor’s Thesis
April 2021ABSTRAKTI
Elisa Heikkilä: ”Endure a Heatwave” or ”Enjoy a Heatwave”?: Representation of heatwaves in the British
news sites the Guardian and Daily Mail
Kandidaatintutkielma
Tampereen Yliopisto
Kielten kandidaattiohjelma, englannin kielen opintosuunta
Huhtikuu 2021
Ilmastonmuutos tulee lisäämään sään ääri-ilmiöiden voimakkuutta ja toistuvuutta tulevaisuudessa.
Lämpöaallot ovat yksi näistä ilmiöistä. Poiketen muista ääri-ilmiöistä, lämpöaallot nähdään usein positiivisena
asiana eikä kriisinä, joka tulisi ehkäistä, vaikka lämpöaalloilla on vakavia vaikutuksia muun muassa
kuolleisuuden ja sairastumisien määriin. Koska medialla on merkittävä rooli ihmisten ajatusten ja uskomusten
muokkaamisessa, sen levittämät käsitykset lämpöaalloista ovat oleellisia niiden torjunnan kannalta. Tämä
tutkimus käsittelee lämpöaaltojen representaatioita brittiläisessä mediassa painottaen erityisesti sitä,
esitetäänkö lämpöaallot negatiivisena ilmiönä osana laajempaa ilmastokriisiä. Tämän lisäksi tutkimus pyrkii
vastaamaan kysymykseen siitä, raportoivatko poliittisesti eri puolille painottuneet uutissivustot lämpöaalloista
eri tavalla. Tutkimuksen lähteenä toimivat konservatiivinen Daily Mail ja liberaali The Guardian, joista kerättiin
kaikki vuonna 2020 julkaistut artikkelit, joissa ilmenevät termit heatwave tai heatwaves, suomeksi lämpöaalto
ja lämpöaallot.
Tutkimus on diskurssianalyyttinen ja toteutettu korpuslingvististen metodien avulla analysoimalla
konteksteja, joissa sanat heatwave ja heatwaves ilmenevät uutisartikkeleissa. Konteksteista analysoidaan
erityisesti niiden herättämiä konnotaatioita eli tunnepohjaisia merkityksiä. Tutkimus keskittyy siis sanoihin,
jotka esiintyvät näiden termien yhteydessä. Hypoteeseja ovat, että lämpöaaltoja ei painoteta merkittävästi
negatiivisina, ja että erityisesti konservatiivisempi Daily Mail ei esitä ilmiötä riittävän vakavana kriisinä.
Tutkimus osoitti molemmat hypoteesit paikkansapitäviksi, sillä suurin osa konteksteista, joissa termit
heatwave ja heatwaves ilmenivät, esittivät ilmiön neutraalissa valossa viitaten sen ilmenemisaikaan, paikkaan,
pituuteen tai alkamiseen. Molemmista uutissivustoista löytyi kuitenkin merkittävä määrä osumia, joissa
lämpöaallot ja niiden seuraukset esitettiin negatiivisina. Hypoteesin mukaisesti konservatiivisessa Daily
Mail:issa tämä negatiivisen representaation määrä oli kuitenkin vähäisempi. Merkittävä ero uutissivujen välillä
oli myös se, että Daily Mail esitti muutamaan otteeseen lämpöaallot selkeän positiivisessa kontekstissa, jota
liberaali the Guardian ei tehnyt. Poliittisesti eri suuntiin painottuvien medioiden uutisoinnissa oli siis
löydettävissä eroja.
Avainsanat: diskurssianalyysi, korpustutkimus, ilmastonmuutos, lämpöaallot, media, uutiset
Tämän tutkielman alkuperäisyys on tarkistettu Turnitin OriginalityCheck -palvelussa.Table of Contents:
1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1
2 Theoretical Framework................................................................................................................. 3
2.1 Discourse Analysis ................................................................................................................ 3
2.2 The Discursive Frame of Journalism .................................................................................... 5
2.3 Journalism and Climate Change ............................................................................................ 6
2.4 Heatwave as Part of the Environmental Discourse ............................................................... 8
3 Methods and Material ................................................................................................................... 9
3.1 Corpus Linguistics ................................................................................................................ 9
3.2 Materials .............................................................................................................................. 11
3.3 Method of Analysis ............................................................................................................. 12
4 Results and Discussion ............................................................................................................... 14
4.1 Adjectives and noun modifiers in the Guardian ................................................................. 14
4.1.1 Data on the term heatwave .......................................................................................... 14
4.1.2 Data on the term heatwaves ........................................................................................ 16
4.2 Adjectives and noun modifiers in Daily Mail ..................................................................... 17
4.3 Verbs in the Guardian ......................................................................................................... 19
4.3.1 Data on the term heatwave .......................................................................................... 19
4.3.2 Data on the term heatwaves ........................................................................................ 21
4.4 Verbs in Daily Mail ............................................................................................................. 23
4.4.1 Data on the term heatwave .......................................................................................... 23
4.4.2 Data on the term heatwaves ........................................................................................ 24
5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 25
Works Cited: .................................................................................................................................. 27
Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 291 Introduction
Newspapers, among other media, have a significant role in shaping how we perceive our
reality. Through repetition they can enforce ideologies and world views upon us that we come
to regard as truths (Webb 2008, 99). This makes newspapers an important base for creating
and spreading different discourses (Baker 2006, 72). However, readers might not always be
willing to accept these discourses. Climate change reporting has often been criticized as
lacking and unsuccessful in reporting the scale, urgency, complexity, and results of climate
change (Hackett et al. 2017, 3). This insufficient reporting has made it difficult for people to
take the risks of climate change seriously and act to resist it. During this time of a crisis that
affects all of humanity, journalism’s responsibility to inform and empower must be brought to
light (ibid., 2). In order to motivate action against climate change, it needs to be represented
as a crisis that needs to be fought. This representation is also a responsibility for journalism
(ibid., 2).
More intense and frequent heatwaves are one of the phenomena that result from climate
change. However, they do not contain merely negative associations as other weather
phenomena like tornadoes or floods would, since heat, especially in northern countries, has
been perceived as a rare occasion to enjoy since the warm season is significantly shorter than
in the southern countries. Thus, it has been portrayed in the media often through positivity
and enjoyment. In the United Kingdom, heatwaves are among the two climate change-related
phenomena that will affect the country the most (Howarth & Brooks 2017, 842). However,
the citizens of the UK apparently do not consider heatwaves as a risk. According to the study
by Bruine de Bruin et al. (2016, 261), hot summers and heatwaves are regarded with positive
associations in the United Kingdom. As a result, heatwaves are not perceived as a risk to be
battled. If news outlets emphasize the risks a phenomenon creates, they can create feelings of
anxiety and worry, thus creating a need to act for the reader (Johnson & Tversky 1983, 21).
By representing heatwaves with negative associations, it would be possible to create the
necessary emotions and motivations for countering climate change.
Because the emotions that the media associates with heatwaves are an essential factor in how
heatwaves are perceived altogether, representation of the phenomenon in the media is
important. Especially the connotative meanings given to heatwaves are important, as
connotations often hold the positive or negative meanings that a word might have (Baker &
1Ellece 2011, 20). Hence, discourse analysis was chosen as the method of analysis for this
study as it is useful in researching the common and accepted language patterns that surround
heatwaves in the United Kingdom’s newspapers. The representations of heatwaves will be
analysed through corpus linguistic methods to investigate the context in which the term
heatwave appears. Both the singular and plural forms of the term will be examined as the
singular heatwave is not used to talk about the phenomenon in general as heatwaves is.
Two newspapers from opposite political stances, the Guardian and Daily Mail, were chosen
for analysis in this study. As newspapers aim to make profits, they might mould their content
towards what they believe their readers to want in order to increase their number of sales. As
the Guardian and Daily Mail presumably cater to different audiences because of their
political positions, there might be significant differences in their reporting. This is what my
thesis aims to examine. The research questions for this thesis are as follows: Are heatwaves
represented with negative connotations to represent it as a crisis in Daily Mail and the
Guardian, and are there differences in the ways that the two news outlets represent
heatwaves? The hypotheses are that there will not be a big emphasis on the negativity of
heatwaves as climate journalism has been criticized for insufficient coverage on the
consequences of climate change, and that Daily Mail, as the more conservative newspaper,
would emphasize the negativity even less than the Guardian.
Corpus-assisted discourse analysis has been utilized in previous studies to research climate
change’s representation in the media (Dayrell 2019; Grundmann & Krishnamurthy 2010), but
previous studies concerning how heatwaves are reported were not found. This gives the
research questions of this thesis value as they have not been answered before.
This thesis begins by addressing theories and concepts related to the topic. The terms
discourse and discourse analysis will be defined, and theories related to discourse analysis
will be explored in section 2.1, followed by a definition of the discursive frame of journalism
in section 2.2, definition of journalism’s relationship with climate change in section 2.3, and
finally, in section 2.4, heatwaves’ relation to climate change will be further explored. Section
three covers corpus linguistic methods in 3.1, the consistency of the data in 3.2, and the
methods of analysis in 3.3. Section four covers the results of the research and it has been
divided into four parts based on the word class and newspaper that is being analysed. Finally,
in section five the results of the research will be summarized and recommendations for further
research will be made.
22 Theoretical Framework
In this section, important concepts for analysing the representations of heatwaves in the media
will be determined. These concepts are discourse analysis, discursive features of journalism,
the basis of the relationship of journalism and climate change, and the definition of heatwaves
and how they relate to climate change. Together they combine the theoretical frame of this
study.
2.1 Discourse Analysis
The term discourse is considered difficult to define and it is defined in differing but related
manners even within linguistics (Baker 2006, 3). According to Webb (2008, 55) discourse is a
matter of how language is used in different contexts. This means that each social situation
invokes a different use of language that creates specific understandings inherent to that one
context, that discourse (ibid, 55). Thus, discourse considers language above an individual
person, as a part of a larger phenomenon that goes beyond a single instance of language use
(Taylor 2013, 16). Discourse can also refer to a specific topic of language use, such as media
discourse or environmental discourse (Baker & Ellece 2011, 31). In this thesis, discourse is
used in both senses: to refer to language as a larger phenomenon and to refer to the specific
language used around the topics of media and climate change.
Different discourses can often be found through specific lexical or grammatical features that
are consistent throughout a specific type of language use (Baker 2006, 3). “For example, a
‘discourse of education’ might refer to all the terminology, theory and argument associated
with education or, more usefully, with one approach to education, such as child-centred
discourse” (Taylor 2013, 15-16). The lexical and grammatical features typical to a discourse
are not arbitrary. They are selected for conveying specific meanings that the alternate forms
would not convey (ibid., 18). According to Hall (1992, quoted in Hanitzsch & Vos 2017,
120), all human practices can be said to have a discursive aspect as all social practices involve
meaning, and these meanings determine our behaviour.
Even if it can be stated that everything has a discursive aspect, defining the type of discourse
is not uncomplicated. Naming a discourse is always a matter of subjective interpretation, and
our interpretations are often defined by already existing discourses we have been socialized to
in our society (Baker 2006, 4). As a result, there are multiple different ways of constructing a
discourse around a topic which are subject to the specific worldviews of the interpreter (ibid.,
34). This limits the power that a single discourse has. A discourse can portray its contents only
from a particular perspective that is subject to change over time or change of public opinion,
which means no discourse is invariably dominant or stable (Webb 2008, 126). They are
connected to the surrounding social structures and practices and are as constantly moving and
changing as our society is (Baker 2006, 4). This instability provides further challenges to
defining a discourse, as its defining criteria and practices are constantly shifting (ibid., 4).
Thus, analysis of a discourse is inevitably partly subjective.
According to Baker & Ellece (2011, 32), discourse analysis includes a variety of differing
methods of analysis. A significant amount of these methods focus on how a discourse relates
to power or ideology with the focus on analysing naturally occurring texts (ibid., 32). The
focus of discourse analysis can be on specific words or grammatical structures and the
associations they create and how these associations connect to the surrounding society and
power structures while considering the position and motives of the language user (Taylor
2013, 15). A central point of analysis is what sort of an ideology, a perception of the world,
the used language creates, and how it portrays the wanted ideology as truth (ibid., 19).
One way of forming an ideology is through representations. Representation means the mental
concept that is created in the referent’s mind when seeing or reading a certain word or image
(Baker & Ellece 2011, 117). In discourse analysis, the focus for representations is how
language use represents different ideologies, people, or concepts (ibid., 117). Representations
are a key factor in how people understand their environment and each other (Webb 2008, 8)
as they help us make connections between different aspects in the world we experience.
Representations, in addition to showing connections between different things, play a part in
constituting those same connections and relationships, thus influencing the creation of our
society (Webb 2008, 15).
The connections that we internalize from representations can create connotations.
Connotations can be defined as nonliteral and culturally specific meanings that invoke often
either positive or negative associations through knowledge of social context (Baker & Ellece
2011, 20). As previously mentioned, the lexical features of a discourse hold significant
importance as specific word choices convey specific meanings and these specific meanings
often come from connotations. For example, the terms climate change and climate crisis refer
to the same phenomenon but create different emotive associations in the receiver’s mind.
4Connotations will be the key element for analysing the media representation of heatwaves in
this study.
2.2 The Discursive Frame of Journalism
Williams (2009, 13) stated that journalism has two distinct methods of reporting: one which
aims to educate readers by providing essential information, and another which aims to
entertain readers by giving them information they want. This can also be described as a
“struggle between moral instruction and popular amusement” (ibid., 12). Journalists do not
merely decide what they give their readers. The content that a news outlet produces is
influenced by what the outlet believes its readers want (ibid., 12). It is often believed that the
readers seek to obtain information of the surrounding world in a diverse way in order to
mould their own opinions based on a variety of sources (ibid., 6). However, some read
newspapers to validate their own prejudices and beliefs, not to gain a wider perspective on
things (ibid., 6). These desires of the readers have to be considered when producing news, as
readers may abandon news outlets if they do not agree with the discourses they promote
(Baker 2006, 72). Thus, whether the newspaper aims to entertain or to educate, its objectives
affect the discursive strategies it uses.
The language of journalism is heavily affected by the concept of news values. News values
are the features of events that define them as worthy of publishing. Bednarek & Caple (2014,
136) name some of these features as proximity, negativity, eliteness, and superlativeness.
Richardson describes that these features of news values are formed through the believed
preferences of the newspaper’s audience (quoted in Bednarek & Caple 2014, 138). For
example, heatwaves can be seen as newsworthy if they are happening close by or if they are
reported through their negative effects such as an increase in drought or mortality. Thus,
newsworthiness gets discursively constructed through choices of language that emphasize and
highlight the event from the perspective of the chosen criterion (Bednarek & Caple 2014,
137) and this criterion also discursively creates the relationship between journalism and the
society it stands in (Hanitzsch & Vos 2017, 120).
In addition to forming a perception of what counts as news, news values can be used to
reinforce different ideologies (Bednarek & Caple 2014, 137). By reporting certain events
always through certain values, reporters can form strong perceptions of what these events are.
Always reporting something through the value of negativity versus the value of eliteness
5creates very different representations of the reported events. Thus, journalists can affect the
mental patterns of their readers through spreading existing ideologies and discourses or by
spreading discourses they themselves have created (Baker 2006, 72). The influence that the
media has is especially strong since information is perceived as official if it has been
published (Taylor 2013, 10). This influence is increased by repetition. A news outlet can
create specific means of seeing the world which gets repeated through different forms of
media, and through intensive repetition its receivers, consciously or not, can start to believe
this world view as true (Webb 2008, 105). Webb (2008, 99) calls this the “I heard it on the
news: it must be true” syndrome. This makes media a key factor in how people position
themselves towards their surrounding society (Hackett et al. 2017, 2).
As was stated in the previous chapter, discourses are always created and are not natural.
Similarly, the norms and rules governing journalism have been artificially created and
accepted as natural through repetition (Cook 1998, quoted in Hanitzsch & Vos 2017, 119) as
journalism itself constitutes a discourse. These norms restrict the knowledge that news outlets
spread to their readers, as the published information is always structured through the norms
created by journalism as an institution and as a discourse (Döring 2017, 293). This is where
the questions of power and access become essential. Earlier it was established that discourses
can be found in all human interaction. However, all outlets of discourse do not hold equally as
much power. A statement in a newspaper is often much more influential than a statement in a
personal letter (Baker 2006, 98). This makes the question of who has access to the formation
of the media essential as they are in a valuable position of getting to define what kind of
representations the influential news discourse spreads (Taylor 2013, 14). For example, rich
corporations can spread tolerance for environmental degradation through journalistic
discourse as they have the power to take part in forming the discourse (Alexander 2017, 197).
Similarly, the concept of heatwaves can be formed in the media to support certain ideologies
that can portray heatwaves as a crisis or a gift.
2.3 Journalism and Climate Change
Climate change is one of the biggest crises that we as a humanity are facing, and journalism
has an undeniable role in informing and motivating citizens to respond to it (Hackett et al.
2017, 2). Journalism has the power to influence action by giving meaning and direction for
readers who seek to become more active in environmental issues and create a sense of
connection amidst them through sharing their stories (ibid., 189). According to a study by
6Brulle et al. (2012), mass media coverage is among the three most important factors that
influence the public’s concerns (quoted in Kirilenko & Stepchenkova 2012, 179). As the
discourse of journalism can unconsciously affect its reader’s worldview (Döring 2017, 301),
and as journalism is one of the most important ways to create climate action, climate change’s
representation in the media gains significant importance.
Climate change gains the status of a crisis only if it is discursively represented as such and
journalism has an active role in defining it (Hackett et al. 2017, 2). However, the media has
been vastly criticized as unsuccessful in reporting the scale, urgency, and consequences of
climate change (ibid., 3), thus, not defining it as a crisis definitively enough. As heatwaves are
a part of climate change, they might be reported in the same lacking way. The scale of climate
change often gets overlooked as it is reported as a distant, international problem with no local
relevance (ibid., 3). In order to represent climate change as a crisis with a large scale, readers
have to be provided with a concrete perception of how their lives and communities will be
locally affected by climate change (ibid., 64). Additionally, this would increase the level of
interest that people have for articles concerning climate change, as interest is affected by the
extent of feeling personal threat (ibid., 64). Considering climate change as a distant problem
might also result in articles not getting published, as proximity is one criterion for
newsworthiness.
The lack of publishing accurate information on climate change has often been considered the
main cause for indifference and lack of action in the public (ibid., 49). However, Hackett et al.
(2017, 189) stated that providing more data is not the key to inspiring action, but rather
bridging the “hope gap” that the scale of climate change and the amount of effect that
ordinary people can have in countering it has created. This gap has been increased by often
reporting climate change in a negative and hopeless context. Negativity is one factor to base
newsworthiness on, thus influencing the discursive habits that journalists use when reporting
on climate change. This elevates the framing of climate change as one of the most significant
issues. How climate change is represented and what reactions this representation evokes in the
public need to be considered when reporting (Hackett et al. 2017, 4). Framing of climate
change has been criticized for creating a sense of defeat and thus being unproductive and
creating the fore mentioned “hope-gap” (ibid., 4). As a result, journalists must struggle with
informing the citizens about climate change as a crisis without spreading hopelessness and
apathy through negativity.
7Even if Hackett et al. seek to hold journalism accountable for the lack of viable informing,
they do not think that the media should be blamed for inaction on climate change (2017, 189).
As mentioned in the previous chapter, consumers of media do not always seek to merely gain
information but also want to have their prejudices confirmed. Thus, readers might not engage
with the information granted if it does not support their existing worldview (Hackett et al.
2017, 65). The media has tried to reach a wider audience by reporting climate change in a
falsely balanced way, presenting pro-climate change information against climate change
denying information, even if the information is not equally based on science (Boykoff &
Boykoff 2004, quoted in Hackett et al. 2017, 11). This could result in a dual representation of
heatwaves as both positive and negative to appeal to a wider audience.
When climate change is viewed as a distant crisis, it is often reported through the value of
negativity, which is unhelpful in widening the “hope-gap” but on the other hand, it can
motivate the public into action by framing climate change as a crisis which has to be engaged
with. When considering the emotions related to heatwaves that the study of Bruine de Bruin et
al. discovered, negative reporting might be more beneficial than harmful as heatwaves in the
UK are not perceived as threatening enough to motivate protective actions.
2.4 Heatwave as Part of the Environmental Discourse
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO, n.d.), heatwave is defined as a
duration of several days when the temperature is above average during the day and night.
According to WMO (n.d.), in an urban environment, heatwaves can result in an increase in
deaths especially among the very young and the elderly. For example, in 2003 heatwaves in
Europe resulted in approximately 40,000 casualties (ibid.).
The UK Climate Change Risk Assessment in 2017 states that heatwaves like the one in 2003
will become the norm by the 2040s (Committee on Climate Change 2016, 4). The document
states that there are 2,000 premature deaths every year due to heat, and this amount is
predicted to more than triple by the 2050s (ibid., 4). In addition to an increase in casualties,
heatwaves can inflict illness and discomfort and they are predicted to become more frequent
due to the advancement of climate change (Bruine de Bruin et al. 2016, 261). Thus,
heatwaves have undeniably dangerous consequences and heatwaves are predicted to become
more frequent, intense, and long. However, in the United Kingdom heat is associated with
positive feelings, especially during summer (Bruine de Bruin et al. 2016, 261). These feelings
8might decrease the citizens’ sense of threat related to heat and their willingness to protect
themselves from it (ibid., 261). These positive associations are the reason why heatwaves in
the UK were chosen as the subject of this study.
From different climate-related shocks, heatwaves have been ranked as one of the two most
significant ones affecting the United Kingdom (Howarth & Brooks 2017, 842). In addition to
the direct consequences to humans, severe heatwaves can also impact water and energy
supplies and health care services (Howarth & Brooks 2017, 844). These can affect
communities on a very local level. Disregarding these harmful consequences, UK citizens do
not perceive heat as a personal risk and underestimate its severity (Howarth & Brooks 2017,
845). According to Slovic et al. (2004, quoted in Bruine de Bruin et al. 2016, 262), negative
affects create a higher impression of risk. Additionally, people do not perceive risk as much
when they have positive feelings toward the factor creating the risk (Bruine de Bruin et al.
2016, 262).
Thus, it is important that heatwaves are represented in the media as a negative phenomenon
that causes very local risks as the media has an immense effect on their consumers’
worldviews. By accurately representing heatwaves as a risk, citizens would associate
heatwaves with climate change and increase the number of actions they take to protect
themselves from it. Other environmental phenomena, such as earthquakes, hailstorms, or
floods get extensive coverage in the media accompanied with “sensationalist headlines and
dramatic images” (Döring 2017, 293). Unlike heat, these phenomena do not have positive
effects for anyone, thus it is important to investigate, whether heatwaves in the media are
treated differently due to their positive associations.
3 Methods and Material
This section will specify what corpus linguistics is and the features of corpus linguistics that
have been utilized for this study will be defined, followed by a description of the used
material. Finally, the methods for collecting the data and the methods used in its analysis will
be detailed.
3.1 Corpus Linguistics
Baker (2006, 2) defines corpora as large databases with samples of naturally occurring
language, and thus a reliable source for analysing language. Corpora have been considered
9reliable due to the objectivity of the data. Even if selectivity has its part in the data’s
formation due to limitations of resources or time, the analysis starts from an objective set of
data that is free of biases (ibid., 12).
As was mentioned earlier in chapter 2.3, the linguistic patterns of media can unconsciously
affect our worldview (Döring 2017, 301). A computer-based analysis, such as corpus analysis,
can be beneficial in uncovering these hidden patterns and unconscious influences as
computers process information in a distinctly different manner than humans do (Baker 2006,
19). However, corpus linguistics often uses both qualitative and quantitative methods of
analysis. The advantages that a computer-basis gives are clearer in qualitative analysis as the
computer-basis has less interference from any analyser biases.
This study utilizes two corpus analytical concepts, collocations which tend to be more
quantitative, and concordances which are often more qualitative. Both methods look at words
in the contexts that they appear in, as words can only establish meaning in their contexts in
relation to other words (Baker 2006, 96). Collocates are words that frequently occur next to
each other in a statistically significant way (ibid., 95). When the frequency is high, the
surrounding discourse of the collocate is often more powerful as it implies that two words are
strongly associated with one another. This association can result in people thinking of this
specific word whenever they hear the other one, thus making an indistinguishable pair out of
them (ibid. 114). For example, if we saw the terms heatwave and threat frequently next to
each other, we would be primed to think of threat whenever we read the term heatwave. As
this study focuses on connotations as the basis of representation, collocations are an excellent
way of researching what kind of concepts and emotions the media connects to heatwaves.
Collocates are a significant way to promote unconscious associations which maintain a
specific discourse (ibid., 114). The researcher can limit the span of collocation, that is, how
many words to the left or right side of the term they consider in the analysis. These different
spans can grant different results, which evokes a risk of bias in the analysis, as the researcher
can pick spans that provide the most interesting results or that confirm their hypotheses (ibid.,
103). This risk was noted in the analysis of this data.
To limit the risk of overinterpretation of mere collocates, concordances can be used in the
analysis of the data (ibid., 119). Concordance is a list which displays all instances of a search
term in a corpus along with their context (ibid., 71). Concordance-based analysis is a matter
of interpretation as it does not have a quantitative aspect as collocates have with frequency.
10Consequently, the results it provides can be subject to the researcher’s own ideologies and
biases (ibid., 92). To counter researcher bias with focusing only on concordances, and to
avoid overlooking the context of collocates, this study combines these two methods. Even
qualitative corpus analysis has to be confirmed and demonstrated with concrete data that the
mostly objective corpus provides (ibid., 18). This gives the analysis significant objectivity,
even if most of the analysis itself is subjective. In order to avoid making biased interpretations
the online dictionary Lexico.com was consulted when considering the meanings and
connotations of different collocates.
Even if corpus data is considered as objective, it still limits the base of the analysis only to
what can be found in the corpus, thus, inevitably overlooking some factors that can affect the
discourse in question (ibid., 178). For example, the effects that images have for a discourse
are not achievable for analysis through a corpus. Thus, even if the analysis is thorough, it
cannot be exhaustive as the data is inherently limited (ibid., 178).
3.2 Materials
The British newspapers the Guardian (London) and Daily Mail (London) were chosen as the
sources of the data for this study since they are among the biggest newspapers in the UK but
come from different ends of the political field: Daily Mail considered as conservative and the
Guardian as liberal (Williams 2009, 1). As was stated in chapter 2.2, newspapers have the
power of spreading different ideologies through discourses and the news values that they
deem significant. Thus, comparing newspapers from the different ends of the political field
can highlight differences between discourses and ideologies that are spread in the opposite
ends of the political field. The Guardian has been credited as an “outstanding example” in
climate journalism (Hackett et al. 2017, 5). For example, the Australian Guardian is the only
news site in Australia that has listed “Environment” as a distinct tab on their webpage (ibid.,
174). The UK’s Guardian has also listed “Environment” as a subsection for “News”, while
Daily Mail has not. This demonstrates that by comparing these two news sites significant
differences can be found in how news outlets depict climate change and thus heatwaves.
The material of this study consists of all articles published in either the Guardian or Daily
Mail during the year 2020 that contained the term heatwave or heatwaves. Heatwave can also
be spelled as heat wave, but this spelling was not considered in the analysis as it did not
appear in any articles of Daily Mail in 2020. The year 2020 was chosen as it was the warmest
11year on NASA’s record alongside 2016 (Greene & Jacobs 2021). Thus, it was probable that
the terms heatwave or heatwaves would occur a significant amount in both newspapers. The
articles were gathered from the Nexis Uni database. The Guardian had 366 articles
concerning heatwaves from which four were removed as they did not consider the natural
phenomenon heatwave, but heatwave as a proper noun. Daily Mail had a significantly smaller
number of articles with only 83 including the term heatwave or heatwaves. Four of these
articles were removed as they dealt with heatwave as a proper noun.
The difference in the number of articles was not seen as a problem for the analysis as the
articles from the different news outlets were gathered from the same time span. The drastic
difference in the number of articles could itself provide evidence for differing attitudes
towards heatwaves, as Daily Mail did not give the phenomena as large coverage as the
Guardian did during the same year. To test this hypothesis, additional searches in the Nexis
Uni database were made with terms royal family and celebrity that were seen to represent
other largely reported topics. Both searches provided more results from the Guardian than
from Daily Mail. Thus, it could be possible that the large difference in the number of articles
is due to the Guardian publishing more articles than Daily Mail does. Further conclusions
cannot be drawn from the size difference of the data.
3.3 Method of Analysis
The articles containing the term heatwave or heatwaves were downloaded and combined to
create two corpora, one for each news outlet. These corpora were analysed with the
concordance program AntConc. As the motive of the analysis was to determine how
heatwaves are represented, the analysis focused on words that seemed to create connotations
and associations concerning the threat and negativity of heatwaves. It seemed that adjectives,
noun attributes, and verbs held the most interesting emotive connotations, and they were
chosen as the focus of this study.
The data was analysed with the concordance function that provided the search words within
their contexts. The collocates function was not used as the collocates fulfilling the chosen
criteria had only small frequencies. Determiners and prepositions had the largest frequencies,
as it often is with word lists (Baker 2006, 123). Thus, it seemed to provide more noteworthy
results to look at the different collocates in their contexts and categorize them from a semantic
basis. This makes the analysis more qualitative than quantitative. However, the frequencies of
12different collocates were still listed in order to provide evidence for the sizes of different
semantic groups.
Searches with the terms heatwave and heatwaves were made with both of the corpora, and the
collocates that fit the chosen criteria were gathered to form tables based on word class. These
tables were further analysed based on semantic and connotative features and another set of
tables was created from this data. Adjectives and noun attributes were further categorized
based on whether they were qualifying or classifying. Qualifying adjectives were related to
the nature or intensity of the heatwave, while classifying dealt with the length, time of
occurrence, or place of occurrence of the heatwaves. Verbs were categorized into a varying
number of semantic categories, as the categories found were not consistent throughout the
data.
The search span for adjectives and noun attributes was one word to the left as further words
on the left side or any words on the right side did not contain words from these classes. For
example, 118 of the collocates two words to the left of heatwave in the Guardian were
determiners and the majority of collocates on the right side of the search term were verbs.
Verbs collocating with the search term had a larger span, from three words to the left to three
words to the right, as this larger span kept providing significant results. Collocates that
appeared in different sentences were disregarded, and the context of collocates that were
separated from the search term by punctuation were inspected to make sure that the collocates
were connected to the search terms. If they were not, they were also disregarded.
The focus in the qualitative analysis was the affective connotations that the collocates had. To
ascertain what the representations of heatwaves are in the British media, it was deemed that
the best approach would be to define whether heatwaves were represented as a crisis or not.
Thus, it would be significant to define if the collocates created positive or negative
associations. Collocates are a viable source for looking at the representation of heatwaves as
associations between two words provide strong evidence of a specific discourse (Baker 2006,
13).
134 Results and Discussion
The hypothesis of the results was that Daily Mail and the Guardian would report heatwaves
in different manners as they are from opposing ends of the political field, and thus cater for
different audiences that might regard climate change in different manners. This hypothesis
was found partly true, as the Guardian had more descriptive words collocating with
heatwaves of which many emphasized the threat that heatwaves posed. Daily Mail reported
heatwaves with mostly neutral collocates and even with verbs that had positive connotations
which the Guardian did not have. This clearly drew a distinct difference between the
representations that heatwaves have in these two news outlets.
4.1 Adjectives and noun modifiers in the Guardian
4.1.1 Data on the term heatwave
The term heatwave had 419 hits in the corpus of which 200 had adjectives or noun attributes
as collocates as the first word to the left (1L). The number of adjectives in relation to other
word types in the corpus is demonstrated by Figure 1.
84, 20%
219, 52% 116, 28%
Qualifying adjectives and noun attributes
Classifying adjectives and noun attributes
Other word classes
Figure 1: Collocates on the immediate left side of the search word based on word class
As seen in Figure 1, nearly half of the 1L collocates of the term heatwave were classified as
adjectives or noun attributes demonstrating that the Guardian has a strong desire to describe
the heatwaves, aside from merely neutrally presenting the phenomena with determiners.
However, most of these words were classifying and not concerned with representations of the
danger that heatwaves present. This emphasizes how heatwave is mostly described as a
neutral weather phenomenon. The full list of these collocates is presented in Appendix 1.
14From the classifying adjective and noun attribute collocates three types of categories could be
found: time, place, and length. The collocates concerning time were the most frequent with 58
instances which included for example months (Example 1), seasons (Example 2), and years
(Example 3). There were 40 collocates relating to place which informed where the heatwaves
had occurred with the highest frequency on northern heatwaves (Examples 4-5) with 14 hits
and underwater heatwaves (Examples 6 and 7) with 20 hits. The smallest amount was
concerned with the length of the heatwaves (Examples 8 and 9) with 18 occurrences. None of
these collocates presented connotations that would guide the readers toward any clear emotive
associations. They merely stated the occurrence of a heatwave.
(1) April Heatwave
(2) summer heatwave
(3) 1995 heatwave
(4) Siberian heatwave
(5) Arctic heatwave
(6) marine heatwave
(7) underwater heatwave
(8) extended heatwave
(9) mini-heatwave
Qualifying collocates were divided into four sub-categories based on semantics: intensity of
heatwaves, heat-related terms, descriptions of danger, and description of the length of
heatwaves. Descriptions of intensity were the most frequent with 53 occurrences in the corpus
(Examples 10-12). Heat-related terms occurred 15 times in the corpus (Examples 13-15). 8
terms represented the danger that heatwaves pose by emphasizing the threats and negative
effects that heatwaves impose (Examples 16 and 17). Some terms relating to the length of
heatwaves were also categorised as qualitative. The difference between qualifying and
classifying was made on the connotations the words had. Terms which referred to the length
of a heatwave as negative or unwanted were categorised as qualifying (Examples 18 and 19).
However, only eight terms referring to length were categorised as qualifying.
(10) extreme heatwave
(11) record-breaking heatwave
(12) intense heatwave
(13) searing heatwave
(14) scorching heatwave
(15) sweltering heatwave
(16) lethal heatwave
(17) merciless heatwave
(18) prolonged heatwave
(19) persistent heatwave
When the span of collocates was lengthened from one word to the left to two words to the left
no new semantic categories were found. There were only 47 instances of adjective or noun
15attributes altogether. Thus, larger spans than one word to the left were excluded from further
analysis.
While most collocates were neutral, merely mentioning the occurrence of a heatwave, all the
qualifying collocates used to describe heatwaves were either neutral or negative, thus
accurately representing heatwaves as negative phenomena, not a period of enjoyable heat.
Collocations with negative connotations remained in the minority as most of the adjective and
noun attribute collocates were classifying, and even all of the qualifying collocates did not
have negative connotations.
4.1.2 Data on the term heatwaves
The corpus of the Guardian’s articles had 242 hits for the plural form heatwaves. 86 of these
were defined as adjectives or noun attributes on the collocates immediately on the left side of
the search word. The number of adjectives and noun attributes is demonstrated by Figure 2.
The full list of collocates is presented in Appendix 2.
46, 19%
40, 17%
156, 64%
Qualifying adjectives and noun attributes
Classifying adjectives and noun attributes
Other word classes
Figure 2: Collocates on the immediate left side of the search word based on word class
Figure 2 demonstrates that heatwaves had fewer collocates of adjectives and noun attributes
than heatwave. The bigger divide might result from the plural form used to describe
heatwaves as a larger phenomenon which might invite less information related to location or
length for example, than reports of specific heatwaves. The difference between qualifying and
classifying collocates was smaller than with the term heatwave, which might further support
this theory.
Two of the categories for classifying adjectives found with the term heatwave could also be
found in the collocates of heatwaves. Of the classifying collocates 20 related to time.
However, the same kinds of subcategories could not be found. There were no collocates
16relating to months or years, and the only season mentioned was summer, but it covered over
half of the category with 13 occurrences. The other time related collocates mostly dealt with
regularity (Examples 20 and 21). This difference between the terms heatwave and heatwaves
could result from specificity, as the singular form refers to specific heatwaves that occur in
specific instances of time, while the more general plural form might not need as specific
mentions of time. There were 20 collocates related to place (Examples 22-24) with the same
emphasis on oceanic places as heatwave’s collocates had with 14 hits altogether. There were
no collocates relating to length.
(20) annual heatwaves
(21) recurring heatwaves
(22) marine heatwaves
(23) ocean heatwaves
(24) underwater heatwaves
Qualifying collocates were also divided into the same subcategories as with the collocates of
heatwave. The largest amount of qualifying collocates referred to the intensity of heatwaves,
as it was with the collocates of heatwave, with 21 occurrences (Examples 25-27). Unlike with
heatwave, the second-largest category was descriptions of danger with 15 occurrences (28-
30). There were 6 length related collocates defined as qualifying (Example 31). In addition,
there were 4 hits of collocates related to heat which were hotter heatwaves and scorching
heatwaves.
(25) record heatwaves
(26) worsening heatwaves
(27) enormous heatwaves
(28) deadly heatwaves
(29) unbearable heatwaves
(30) dangerous heatwaves
(31) prolonged heatwaves
As with heatwave, many of the qualifying adjective and noun attribute collocates had negative
connotations with the emphasis on the intensity of heatwaves and the threats they pose, hence
portraying heatwaves as a crisis and a threat, and not as something positive.
4.2 Adjectives and noun modifiers in Daily Mail
There were 95 hits for heatwave in Daily Mail’s corpus of which 40 had adjectives or noun
attributes as collocates as the first word to the left. The number of adjectives in relation to
other word types in the corpus is demonstrated by Figure 3. The full list of adjective and noun
attribute collocates can be found in Appendix 3.
179, 9%
31, 33%
55, 58%
Qualifying adjectives and noun modifiers
Classifying adjectives and noun modifiers
Other word classes
Figure 3: Collocates on the immediate left side of the search word based on word class
Figure 3 shows that the Daily Mail’s number of qualifying adjectives or noun attributes as
collocates was noticeably smaller than with the Guardian, covering only 9% of all the
collocates while in the Guardian this category covered 20%. As with the Guardian, there
were more classifying than qualifying adjectives and noun modifiers demonstrating that the
desire to describe might have been lesser than to tie the heatwave in question to time and
place.
The same subcategories for the classifying collocates were visible as in the Guardian: time,
place, and length. There were 17 instances of collocates referring to time, for example months
(Example 32), seasons (Example 33), and other lengths of time (Example 34). Unlike in the
Guardian, length was the second-largest category of classifying collocates with 9 hits
(Examples 35 and 36). The third category, place, did not emphasize either of the categories
that the Guardian did. No mentions of underwater or northern places were included in the 5
instances of place-related collocates. The collocates referred to specific locations (Examples
37 and 38). The different emphasis regarding place could be a result of emphasizing how
heatwaves affect humans, not for example marine life or the Arctic which are at significant
risk of being destroyed by climate change.
(32) April heatwave
(33) summer heatwave
(34) current heatwave
(35) mini-heatwave
(36) five-day heatwave
(37) Britain’s heatwave
(38) California’s heatwave
The qualifying collocates mostly related to the intensity of heatwaves with 6 hits, such as
record-breaking heatwave and severe heatwave. There was one instance of a heat-related
collocate with hottest heatwave, one time-related collocate with unseasonable heatwave, and
18one length related collocate with longest heatwave. The time-related collocate was defined as
qualifying since it has a larger connection to climate change, as unseasonal heatwaves could
result from climate change and evoke negative connotations. The collocates did not have
mainly negative associations as the ones in the Guardian did with the only clearly negative
collocate being severe. There were hardly any qualifying collocates and even those few did
not clearly represent heatwaves as a threat. Thus, it seems that the two news outlets report
heatwaves with different motivations even if the connotations that the collocates present were
not that different.
There were only 14 hits of heatwaves in Daily Mail’s corpus of which only one had a
collocate that fit the criteria of adjectives or noun attributes. This was a classifying noun
attribute summer heatwaves. Thus, a separate section for the results of the search term
heatwaves was not created as there were barely any results to be analysed. The lack of the
term heatwaves could be a result of seeing only specific heatwaves as newsworthy, describing
them as they would any other weather event. Meanwhile, heatwaves is often used to talk
about the phenomenon in general. The lack of reporting the general phenomenon creates a
representation of heatwaves as a fleeting weather condition, not as a larger crisis.
4.3 Verbs in the Guardian
4.3.1 Data on the term heatwave
Of the 419 hits of heatwave, 220 had verbs as collocates from three words to the left to three
words to the right of the search term (3L to 3R). This means that a verb was included in any
of the three words either to the left or to the right of the search word. The span was larger than
with adjectives and noun attributes as the frequencies of verb collocates were even smaller
with the amounts being mostly one or two. Thus, the larger span provided more data for
analysis, and up to three words to either side of the search words, significant data was found.
The number of verbs is demonstrated in Figure 4.
19199, 47%
220, 53%
Verbs
Other word classes
Figure 4: Collocates from three words to the left to three words to the right of the search word
Figure 4 presents that half of the hits were accompanied by verbs. The verbs were further
divided into eight categories which can be seen from Table 1 with an example of each.
Table 1: The categories found in verb collocates of heatwave in the Guardian
Start of a heatwave: heatwave incoming
Cause of a heatwave: caused the heatwave
State of a heatwave: heatwave continues
What it is like to experience a heatwave: suffered from the heatwave
What can be done in a heatwave: working in a heatwave
The results of a heatwave: heatwave that melted
Statements on heatwaves: said the current heatwave
The end of a heatwave: heatwave conditions die
As seen in Table 1, the Guardian has a desire to describe heatwaves in a variety of ways and
in different contexts from the start of a heatwave to how it ends and how it is talked about.
While most of the verbs neutrally presented different phases of heatwaves, some of them also
represented heatwaves with negative connotations, especially through semantic categories of
danger, violence, and heat. The full list of these verb collocates can be found in Appendix 4.
There were 27 collocates relating to violence (Examples 39-41), 8 collocates relating to
danger (Examples 42 and 43), and 19 relating to heat (Examples 44 and 45), of which seven
were clearly negative. In addition, there were a few words that did not fall into these
categories, but clearly had negative connotations (Examples 46 and 47).
(39) heatwave hit
(40) heatwave strikes
(41) killed by heatwave
(42) flee amid a heatwave
(43) heatwave looms
(44) swelters in a heatwave
(45) burn amid scorching heatwave
20(46) endure a heatwave
(47) suffering the heatwave
While the adjective and noun attribute collocates had only neutral or negative connotations,
there were a couple of verbs that could be interpreted as representing heatwaves in a positive
manner. They were browning in heatwave, use this northern heatwave, nurtured by a
heatwave, threaten to end heatwave, and heatwave overhyped. The contexts of these
presumably positive words were inspected to see whether they were in reality positive or not.
Browning in heatwave could have been positive if it for example referred to a chance for
sunbathing at the beach, but in this context browning in referred to crops drying and being
spoiled by a heatwave. Thus, it was not categorised as positive. Use this northern heatwave
was also proven not to be positive, as it concerned a chance of using the heatwave to
illuminate the climate events that result from global warming. It portrays the heatwave as
something beneficial, but only in providing an example of how our climate functions. The
article as a whole does not create a positive image of heatwaves, but this collocate does grant
an opportunity for positive associations. Nurtured by a heatwave was also proven as negative
as it referred to the heatwave nurturing California’s fires which had forced the residents to
flee. Heatwave overhyped was not clearly positive or negative, it was merely used to state that
the heatwave was not as intense as it had been described to be, but whether this development
was positive or negative was not stated.
The only collocate to actually represent heatwaves as positive was threaten to end heatwave,
which referred to a coming storm being a risk for the heatwave. By representing the end of the
heatwave as a threat, something negative, its presence is represented as positive. However,
one article of 366 does not have significant power in influencing the overall representation of
heatwaves, but it is still important to note that among the neutral and negative representations,
there was a positive one to be found.
4.3.2 Data on the term heatwaves
Of the 242 hits of the term heatwaves, 103 contained verbs as collocates on either three words
to the left or three words to the right. The same span was used as with the term heatwave. The
amount of verb collocates is presented in Figure 5.
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