More Than Skepticism: Climate Change Discourses through an Economic Perspective in Czech Newspapers

Abstract

Central and East European states are believed to endorse climate skepticism in both their public discourse and their population attitudes. In this paper we focus on the climate change discourse from an economic perspective in Czechia and show that the situation is more complex than expected. Specifically, the paper analyses Czech mainstream (Ekonom, MF Dnes) and alternative media (Deník Referendum) and concludes that the discursive strands of (1) adaptation and (2) climate change as an opportunity for business are prevalent in the media mainstream. In contrast, the strand of (3) mitigation appears more in the alternative media. We apply the concept of (de)politicization to analytically capture an important aspect contributing to the differentiation of these strands. The analyzed sample suggests that the Czech economic discourse on climate change is neither dominated by skepticism nor polarized along the axis of climate denial versus climate alarmism. Here lies our contribution: our findings challenge the expectation of the dominance of climate skepticism and denialism and position Czechia closer to the discursive landscape of established democracies, where media contribute to the pluralistic nature of the climate change debate.