Thai audiences and journalists’ responses to a holistic, future-oriented, participatory and empowering (HOPE) model for climate change coverage

Within the framework of the UN’s Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (2005–14), this article explores the potential of a Holistic, future-Oriented, Participatory and Empowering (HOPE) model for framing climate change in the media. A small-scale content analysis of three leading Thai dailies shows that most climate change stories have some, but not all, elements of HOPE. Follow-up in-depth interviews with Thai journalists and climate experts suggest that this is due to issues related to the practicality of implementing HOPE, especially day-to-day constraints on newswork – such as editors’ attitudes, editorial policies, newsroom resources. Finally, a focus group with Thai students finds that while audience members appreciate articles with all four HOPE elements, they think that a climate change story does not need to entail all elements to attract them, in part because it is not only the content but also its reporting style and form that make a story appealing. All in all, there is a general agreement that HOPE could serve as an ideal set of criteria for journalists to use as a guideline in framing climate change stories.