Oscar Stuhler: Temporalities of Climate Change in U.S. Media (2000-2021)

Ort: Seidenstraße 36, Raum: 2.067 (2. OG)

As part of the SOWI VII department colloquium, we are very pleased to welcome Oscar Stuhler (Northwestern University) to join us.

Temporalities of Climate Change in U.S. Media (2000-2021)
Oscar Stuhler, Department of Sociology, Northwestern University, U.S.

Questions of temporality are at the heart of climate change discourse: does one think of climate change primarily as an event happening in the present, or as something that will take place in the future? By when must we take action to prevent its worst consequences? This article presents the first large-scale assessment of the structure and evolution of temporalities expressed in U.S. media discussions on climate change (2000-2021). To do so, we developed a novel computational framework for detecting and interpreting temporal expressions in textual data. Our analyses yield three main findings: first, temporal horizons for climate change have continuously shrunk since 2000, stably targeting, on average, the year 2060. However, second, while anticipated impacts are getting closer, horizon extents for the coordination of climate action have remained highly stable—averaging around 16 years into the future at any given time. Third, contrasting this stability, we find a sharply expanding discourse of urgency, patterned by outbursts of urgency—eventful surges in calls for immediate action or warnings against climate change’s devastating consequences. By uncovering this disjuncture of different forms of temporality, we both illuminate a crucial aspect of the climate change debate and contribute to the sociological theory of events.

Short Bio: Oscar Stuhler is a sociologist studying discourse with formal, quantitative methods. Much of his work focuses on how to measure, analyze, and theorize textual representations of social structures.

All interested parties are warmly invited. No registration is necessary.

Oscar Stuhler