The thesis examines the different conceptualizations of ‘freedom’ in mediated climate policy discourse during the 2021 German parliamentary election campaign using a method of Discourse-Conceptual Analysis. Analyzing three TV debates on climate policy between the leading candidates of the major German parties, the thesis investigates how journalists and politicians deploy references to ‘freedom’ in service of different agendas and how this affects the discursive construction of climate policy. The research shows that the concept of freedom is central to the German climate policy discourse. However, the majority of journalists and politicians does not construct freedom as the central goal of climate protection measures, as it was interpreted, for example, by the German Federal Constitutional Court in early 2021. Rather, the concept enters the discourse via the counter-concept of bans that potentially restrict freedom. Thus, climate policy does not become a means to achieve freedom, but an obstacle to its execution. Since freedom is conceptualized primarily as freedom of consumption and market freedom, the concept becomes a central vehicle for capitalist ideology in German mediated climate discourse.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hj-57250 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Worm, Maya |
| Publisher | Jönköping University, HLK, Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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