Heatwaves are dangerous - yet media coverage still shows people having fun in the sun

During summer months, images of crowded beaches swarming with people are regular features in the pages of newspapers. Such images normally make heat waves look good – who wouldn't want to be basking in the sun with an ice cream?

A new pre-print on SocArXiv finds that when heat waves happen across Europe, these kinds of images depicting "fun in the sun" are indeed prevalent in the media. And even when images do show how dangerous heat waves can be, people are largely absent – effectively downplaying the serious impact of climate change on our future.

The team looked at media coverage of extreme weather in four countries particularly impacted by the 2019 European heat waves – France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK. The researchers examined articles from five of the most visited online news sites in each country, including upmarket, tabloid, and broadcast media. Each country sample also included at least one left-leaning and one right-leaning title, and articles were only included if they mentioned climate change, even if only in passing.

The team's analyses focused on how images were framed visually. For example, some images conveyed an 'idea of heat', through "through bright sunbursts, intense red heat maps, and high readings on thermometers"; others depicted people having fun on the beach or engaging in recreational activities; others showed landscapes or buildings. The valence of the images were also coded – whether an image seemed negative (e.g. depicting dangerousness or risk through cracked earth or fire) or positive (e.g. depicting fun or holiday-like scenes).

Across the four countries, the images most commonly depicted leisure activities in the sun – people engaging in leisure activities in the water or in outdoor spaces, as well as eating and drinking in the sun. More specifically, positively valenced images in or by water were by far the most common image in all countries – 33% of all images in the UK, 27% the Netherlands, 26% in France and 22% in Germany. Such images tended to depict people who were "expressing happiness" through smiles, laughs, hugs, play, and even some jumping for joy. The images were also full of light, featuring blue skies and water and colourful leisure items.

Images displaying the idea and impact of heat and images of landscapes were also common. In France and Germany in particular, images often showed thermometers, bright lights, and red tones, hinting at the danger of such extreme heat. Yet these tended not to have people in them, thus distancing the more dangerous elements of heat waves from their impact on real people.

When it came to the textual content of articles, the team noted something of a dissonance. Less than 1% of articles reported on the extreme heat with a positive tone, yet almost a third of images were positively valenced across the four countries. In the Netherlands, for example, one article wrote of vulnerable people being at risk because of the heat – yet the image that accompanied the article showed people having fun at the beach. An article in the Daily Mail showed an attractive young woman in a fountain wearing a t-shirt saying "hotter than wasabi"; the text detailed the deaths of three people due to extreme weather.

These kinds of images could have a serious impact on how we understand and think about climate change. If heat waves are treated in a positive way, and shown as times to have fun, then the "uncomfortable reality" of the true nature of heat waves is displaced. Similarly, even when negative images were included, they tended not to include people, meaning that the direct impact extreme weather might have on our lives is hidden.

In depicting extreme weather, therefore, journalistic outlets could and should think more carefully about the images they use to illustrate stories about extreme heat. Future research could also explore what kinds of images can help us understand heat waves without becoming too frightened or anxious to take action on the climate, acknowledging the true reality of what our communities face because of climate change.