Climate Displacement in Pakistan: (under) reported Frame in Media Discourse on Climate Change in Pakistan

Abstract

Climate disruption has brought irreversible damage to the world. Since global communities are being widely affected by these changes, masses of the populations are facing climate induced displacement. Such displacements involve internal as well as cross border migration. Climate change is marginalized issue in the hand of media in Pakistan, making climate induced displacement doubly underreported. This study focuses on the media coverage of climate change displacement in Pakistani media discourse. The key research objectives include; to find frequency of climate related news during flood coverage in Pakistan, to assess the nature of themes covered while reporting flood related news during defined period of time and to find climate change induced displacement in media coverage of floods in Pakistan. This study uses content analysis as a research method. Time frame focused in the current study involves 15th June 2022 to 15th September 2022, when flood hit major part of Pakistan. Findings of the study reveal that during defined period of time climate change induced displacement remained under reported in Pakistani newspapers (Dawn, The Nation and The Express Tribune). Moreover, while covering irregular weather events pertaining to climate change, main focus remained on damage, government criticism and aid related process.