1. Media frames and memory:
Social constructions of climate change following the 2011
Brisbane flood
Erin Bohensky1 & Anne Leitch2,3
1 CSIRO Land and Water Flagship 2Biolines 3James Cook University
Climate Adaptation 2014 Gold Coast 30 September 2014

2. Point of departure
• Extreme events are one way through which climate
change manifests and is made ‘real’ for societies
• Two powerful forces shape understanding of extremes,
climate change and how adaptation responses are
designed and adopted: ‘media’ & ‘memory’
• Why is this important? Because maladaptive media and
memory can lead to maladaptive responses
• What can we do? Build better disaster memory (with the
help of research)

3. Memory

4. Social memory
• “the long-term communal understanding of the dynamics of
environmental change, and the transmission of the pertinent
experience (McIntosh 2000:24)”
• Processes of encoding, recalling, harnessing knowledge

5. Disaster memory
• Disasters provide an
opportunity for resetting
the system and
reinforcing or building
memory (Liu et al. 2008)
• Governments play a role
in formalising disaster
memory, but can also
dismantle it (Pelling 2003,
Colten and Giancarlo
2011)

6. Media frames
• News media has considerable power (Parenti 1993, Carvalho
2007) – shape and reflect public risk perceptions
• Thus play a role in policy making and in effecting and supporting
transformations where public and private engagement is essential
• Media a vehicle through which extreme events can be internalised
by broader society

7. Brisbane, Australia
January 13 2011
Convergence of historical and
seasonal factors
24 dead, all but 1 in upstream
Lockyer Valley;
18,000 properties flooded;
56,200 insurance claims;
Estimated payouts ~ $2.55
billion
14-month Royal Commission
of Inquiry

9. Media analysis method
Searched NewsBank online newspaper archive for:
• “flood*” “Brisbane” and “climate change” OR “global warming”
• 20 December 2010 – 20 June 2011 and Jan-March 2012 (one-year
anniversary)
• National and Queensland papers
• Included reader contributions (letters to editor)
• Sample: 109 articles
• Advantages of media analysis: inductive, contextualised,
unobtrusive
• Caveats: filtering (bias), increasing complexity of media landscape

10. Issue attention cycle for “Brisbane” + “flood”
Classic cycle described by Downs (1972)
4500
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Number of articles
Bohensky and Leitch 2014

11. Critical discourse moments 2012

12. Key media narratives
The flood proves that
climate change is real
40%
14%
40%
6%
a link can be made between
climate change and floods in
general
Linking
Denying
Confusing
Proving
The 2011 Brisbane flood cannot
be linked to climate change
There is too
much
uncertainty
/I am
confused
Bohensky and Leitch 2014. Articles may include statements representing more than one narrative.

13. Narrative #1: Linking (40%)
Increased frequency of extreme events is evidence
“To the climate change non-believers. No one is denying
there has been flooding and other natural disasters
before but if climate change isn't happening then why
has the frequency of these incidents increased? Do some
research and check out the non-government funded
scientific evidence. Pull your heads out of the sand and
stop making uninformed ignorant comments.”
(Chatroom, The Gold Coast Bulletin, January 17, 2011)

14. Narrative #2: Denying (40%)
Past floods were bigger than in 2011
“Coalition regional development spokesman Barnaby
Joyce said it was absurd for Senator Brown to blame the
coal industry for floods, which had been a reality in
Queensland throughout its history. ‘In 1893, the flood
gauge on the Brisbane River reached 8.35m, so was the
coal industry responsible for that as well?’ he asked.”
(David Uren, The Australian, January 17, 2011)

15. Narrative #3: Proving (6%)
• Scientists have proof
• Cost of climate change and adaptation: how much and who pays?
(Garnaut report)
“…leading scientists believe the recent floods and cyclones in
Queensland are proof of climate change, and the fires in Victoria
in 2009 are also consistent with expected global warming
outcomes.”
(Anna Chisholm, Courier Mail, June 4, 2011)

16. Narrative #4: Confusing
• Scientists are divided
• Lack of clarity in communication about different consequences of
climate change and their causes
“Scientific opinion continues to be divided over how much the
flooding and cyclones …owe to the La Nina effect or to the wider
impact of global warming.”
(Walker, Bita, Owens, Weekend Australian, February 12, 2011)

17. One-Year Anniversary
• Critical ‘discourse moment’ for building memory

18. NOT
^

19. Courier Mail, 02 February 2013

20. How do memory & media frames shape
climate adaptation?
• Climate beliefs mediate responses: business as usual vs. doing
something new
• Media raise visibility of extreme events and the ‘new normal’
(Leitch and Bohensky 2014)
• But also creates a barrier to adaptation through ‘balance as bias’
(Boykoff and Boykoff 2004), simplified science and short-term
emphasis

21. So what conversations should we be having?

22. ‘‘It’s impossible not to be touched by the
stories that are coming out of the Queensland
floods: grief, heroism, sacrifice, optimism,
hope, resilience….
Journalist, Townsville Bulletin, 15 January 2011

23. …On the other hand we don’t learn much…. Even 1974
wasn’t the first one …. The remarkable thing is that we
got away with it for 37 years. During which time the
population has more than doubled. That explains why
this time it’s not 13,000 buildings affected, but more
than 20,000. What did we expect?’’
Journalist, Townsville Bulletin, 15 January 2011

24. Acknowledgements
• Individuals, communities and
organisations affected by
Brisbane 2011 flood
• Queensland Public Library
• Southeast Queensland Climate
Adaptation Research Initiative
(SEQCARI)
• CSIRO Climate Adaptation
Flagship
Contact: Dr. Erin L Bohensky
Senior Research Scientist
CSIRO Land and Water Flagship
erin.bohensky@csiro.au
Blog: http://disastermemory.wordpress.com/

27. Climate change in Australia
• Sixth highest per capita GHG
emissions
• High levels of scepticism – even
among most educated (Latham
2012)
• Declining levels of belief in
human drivers (52% in 2008 to
44% in 2010; Australian Gallup
Poll)
• Similar to trends in other
developed countries but not in
other countries in region (Leviston
et al. 2011 and others)

28. Australia
Leviston and Walker 2010

29. Public response to perceived problems
Scheffer et al. 2003, Scheffer and and Westley 2007

30. Does ‘flood experience’ motivate climate
adaptation?
• Individuals who have experienced floods first-hand may
be more likely to believe in climate change and to be
taking actions to mitigate it (Spence et al. 2011)
• On the other hand, perceived causes of flooding may be
important; experiencing floods does not matter if people
do not attribute floods to climate change (Whitmarsh
2008)
• Today I explore broader meanings of ‘experience’ – how
an event is framed, codified and remembered in society

31. Key questions
1) Against this backdrop, what role does media play in framing
the problem of extreme events and climate change in Australia?
2) What does this imply for climate adaptation in Brisbane and
Australia more generally, and the science that supports it?

32. Brisbane, Australia January 13 2011
Historical Factors:
• Second-highest flood since 1893; highest
occurred in 1974
• Wivenhoe Dam built in 1984 to mitigate
flooding after 1974 event
• Increase in Brisbane population and extent of
development on floodplains since 1974
• In 2000s, much of state was in a period of
drought
Seasonal Factors:
• 2010/11 was an extremely wet season -
Bureau of Meteorology predicted strong La
Nina event
• Low pressure system in second week of
January

33. Social construction of risk
• Risk perception is socially constructed (Sonnett
2010)
• “Circuit of culture” model (Carvalho and Burgess
2005): “producers and consumers of media are
jointly engaged in dynamic, meaning-making
activities that are context-specific and change
over time”

34. A media model
“Reality”
From Boykoff 2012. Who speaks for climate? Making sense of media reporting
on climate change.

35. Media analysis
• Advantages
• Enables inductive and contextualised analysis
• Non-invasive
• Data available across space and time
• Caveats
• Mainstream media losing relevance compared to social media but still plays a
significant role
• Discourse filtered by journalists, editors and publishers who control the
media

36. Climate change and Brisbane flood:
key media narratives
Narrative Main argument Number of
references
Linking A relationship exists between floods in
general and climate change.
43
Denying The 2011 Brisbane flood was not due to
climate change.
44
Proving The 2011 Brisbane flood was due to
climate change.
7
Confusing There is too much uncertainty to make
a link between the Brisbane 2011 flood
or floods in general and climate change.
15
For articles 20 Dec 2010 – 20 June 2011. Analysis was done on 116 statements in 77 articles.
Articles may include statements representing more than one narrative.

37. Key media narratives
Articles:
2011: 101
2012: 8
% Letters:
Overall: 40
Denying: 70
For articles 20 Dec 2010 – 20 June 2011 and January - March 2012. Articles may include
statements representing more than one narrative.

38. Narrative #1: Linking
• “Compelling evidence”
• Increased frequency of extreme events is evidence of climate
change
• More pro-active, comprehensive approaches to insurance needed
to climate-proof in future

39. Narrative #2: Denying
• Climate change being used by politicians to push policies
through
• Past floods (‘before’ climate change) were bigger than
2011’s
• Climate change being used to explain both drought and
flood
• Floods getting lumped with any and all disasters, many
not climate-related
• Climate change advocates are escaping responsibility

40. Narrative #2: Denying
Argument for a link being used to push carbon tax
“The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere had
nothing to do with the recent severe flooding in
Australia. Making exaggerated claims regarding CO2 only
shows what length some people will go to in order to
score political points for the introduction of a big new
(carbon) tax on everything.”
(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, The Australian, January 20,
2011)

41. Narrative #2: Denying
Climate change used to explain both drought and floods
“LEWIS Carroll, in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, has the Queen
saying to Alice: ‘The word means what I say it means.’
She might as well have been talking about global warming, which
now means whatever the warmers say it means. It used to mean
frying to death in endless droughts, but after two freezing
northern winters and the Brisbane floods, it now means blizzards
and floods, too. Anything, really -- hot, cold, drought or flood.”
(Letters to the editor, The Australian, January 14, 2011)

42. Narrative #2: Denying
Floods lumped with other disasters
“What's happened in Japan will have a big and
unfortunate impact in feeding two hysterias. The first is
the anti-nuclear one. The second is climate change. One
newspaper editorial wrote: ‘What these events (the
floods in Queensland AND the earthquakes) prove is that
climate change is real.'”
(Terry McCrann, Courier Mail, March 15, 2011)

43. Narrative #2: Denying
To blame climate change is escaping responsibility
“THERE is no need for Anna Bligh to throw money away on an inquiry to
find out who or what was to blame for the floods…. Blind Freddy could
tell her the causes: nature, greed, ineptitude and stupidity. Nature is
self-explanatory; greed of developers for building inappropriate houses
in flood-prone areas; and greed, ineptitude and stupidity of councils
which allowed this. Nature, despite the ravings of the climate-change
boffins, we cannot control.”
(Your Say (Letters), Sunday Mail, January 23, 2011)
“To stand back helplessly and blame the summer's tragedies on climate
change is to surrender responsibility for those things that we can
control.”
(Weekend Australian, February 12, 2011)

45. Time scales of adaptation
• Our analysis of the Brisbane flood points to a temporal mismatch
between problem and its framing in societal discourse
• Understanding climate change and how actors adapt requires analysis over a
time period long enough to infer causal relationships
• News media operates in an environment of tight deadlines and rapid
turnover of information = short memories

46. Progress since 2011?
Brisbane City Council Flood Action Plan 2011