Bad news sells papers

Newspapers are here to inform people of news local and worldwide, but also they are a business intent on making money. Research has shown that people are more interested in what has gone wrong in either their local community, or worldwide than the things that have gone right. This is likely to encourage British newspapers to publicise more negative reports rather than positive ones in order to sell more copies of their paper.
‘Peoples' interest in news is much more intense when there is a perceived threat to their way of life.’-http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2007/sep/04/thegoodnewsaboutbadnewsi

This may or may not make the content of such reports unreliable. Although negative issues may be further publicised than positive ones it does not mean that their content is over exaggerated or that a newspaper misinforms its readers.

Shown from research, the sort of newspaper will also reflect the type of information it reveals to its readers, for example broadsheets, overall are far more informative than tabloids. However this may in fact be irrelevant as different newspapers attract different types of people, for example those who read tabloids may not even be interested in informative articles surrounding climate change.

When it comes to climate change almost every, (if not every) newspaper article will concentrate on the negative impacts of climate change. It can be argued that for every positive difference made due to climate change there is a counterbalancing negative one and as previously mentioned negative issues are more widely publicised. This gives the impression that all aspects of climate change are bad. However, is the idea of informing people of these changes and ways to prevent them really such and issue?

It is fairly obvious to say that climate change reports are often linked to the idea of ‘sustainable development’. The reason for this opinion is that with negative reports readers are often given information about how to deal with such issues and when it comes to climate change, they are informed on how to reduce their own individual impacts.
In conclusion, negative reports about climate change are likely to be reliable, but the range in information about other issues surrounding climate change are likely to be ill-informed.

Further reading:

‘Brighter sun adds to fears of climate change’ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article696586.ece
‘Wildlife gives early warning of 'deadly dozen' diseases spread by climate change’
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article4902669.ece
‘Arctic ice 'could melt in five years' as climate change accelerates’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1079064/Arctic-ice-melt-years-climate-change-accelerates.html
‘China urges rich nations to help poor fight climate change’
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200810291522.htm