Who cares about climate change? The mass media and socio-political acceptance of Canada’s oil sands and Northern Gateway Pipeline

摘要: Abstract Canada’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline would carry unrefined bitumen from the Alberta oil sands to coast of British Columbia for international export. Socio-political acceptance or opposition can determine fate such projects, and media coverage offers insight into public discourse, including how project is framed. We analyzed print in six Canadian newspapers, 2097 articles published 2008 2014. The objectives were threefold: 1) characterize framing using a risk/benefit framework; 2) identify regional differences between two affected provinces; 3) investigate environmental risk. Our findings demonstrate that debate dominated by risk with tendency frame as trade-off economic benefit environment Despite strongly distribution risks benefits, we did not find substantial newspapers provinces. Finally found was presented predominately according potential local impacts due pipeline tanker rupture. global climate change rarely mentioned despite large carbon footprint sands.