Oil spill accidents in the media

The presentation of the environmental issues in the media always reaches certain divisiveness about the topic. This divisiveness stems from two outlooks towards the environment; human supremacy over the environment and human equality with the environment. Environmental issues are part of wider discourse on politics and economy and incorporate the inherent values of the society. These values are reflected in the media and influence the understanding of the environmental issues. To analyze how social values influence the media portrayal of divisive environmental issues, the present study looks into the media framing and agenda setting of oil spill accidents. Compared to other environmental issues, such as global warming or alternative energy sources, oil spills are not frequently the focus of academic research. To improve that and to study how social values influence the media frames, this thesis analyzed the articles from two progressive and two conservative newspapers in United States and United Kingdom. The findings of the content analysis show the overarching presence of the environmental catastrophe frame in portrayal of oil spills. At the same time, more news coverage is given to the spills, which directly impact the societies newspapers are part of. The results are situated within theories of framing and agenda setting, focusing on the portrayal of the environmental issues.