News on Biodiversity? An Analysis of the Biodiversity Discourse in European News Outlets in 2010 and 2022

Summary

The loss of global biodiversity is recognised by politics and science as a global crisis. Its anthropogenic causes require a radical societal transformation, but stakeholder interests and low political priority decelerate action. The term’s complexity and its vague usage in everyday life hinder public engagement and allow for a variety of understandings of the drivers and impacts of biodiversity decline in public discourse. News outlets play a crucial role in shaping how biodiversity is understood and valued. This study explores how European news outlets represent “biodiversity” and traces the evolution of this discourse over time. Using a case study approach, we analysed the discourse on biodiversity in news articles from Austria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and United Kingdom. For each country, five widely circulated national news outlets with diverse ideological perspectives were selected. For each news outlet, we collected articles mentioning biodiversity published in 2010 and 2022, yielding 169 and 385 articles, respectively. The articles were analysed using a qualitative content analysis in which statements were categorised with a framework focusing on definitions, values, rhetorical functions and actors. The results show that biodiversity is only rarely defined in European media. Over time, its attributed values have shifted from nature-centred (‘ecocentric’) to human-centred (‘anthropocentric’), though the implications of this shift remain unclear. Additionally, while the term used to be frequently associated with scientific actors in 2010, by 2022 a broader range of actors, mainly NGOs and governments, had gained prominence. Cross-country differences were also noted, particularly in the emotional tone of reporting. The analysis offers a broad overview of biodiversity discourse of European news outlets and offers valuable insights for future policy and communication strategies. This nuanced analysis underscores the complexity and plurality of biodiversity values and discourses in Europe.