Narratives of extreme weather events as a field of conflict: a media comparison between the Emilia Romagna and Marche floods

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the state of the climate change debate in Italy by conducting a frame analysis (Diani and della Porta 2006) of two specific extreme weather events. Given the increasing frequency of such events related to climate change and their rapid impact on the daily lives of numerous regions and populations worldwide (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction 2020), including Italy (Legambiente 2020), an academic debate on the connection between extreme weather events, climate change, and political processes has emerged. However, this debate has had limited influence within the field of Italian political science. Our paper aims to analyse the state and politicization of the climate change debate by focusing on the narratives that evolved around the floods that hit Emilia Romagna in May 2023 and Marche in September 2022. Using Political Claim Analysis (Koopmans and Statham 1999; Bosi and Zamponi 2019) – a method designed to ex- plore public discourse on a specific topic – conducted on three Italian newspapers with different political identities (Il Fatto Quotidiano, La Repubblica, and Il Foglio), we aim to investigate several key dimensions con- cerning the level and the actors of the debate around the extreme climate events, and the frames developed by various newspapers and political actors (e. g. parties, social movements) to capture a) their connection with climate change and environmental instances, or, on contrary, with denialist narratives; b) the strategic use of climate change issue depending by the political opportunity structure (right-wing vs. left-wing/local vs. national); c) the different approach to the climate change within the same right-wing coalition.

Keywords

• climate change
• framing
• Political Claim Analysis
• Italy