Rich pasts and risky futures

- Norwegian media narratives of climate and oil in liminal times

Abstract

Despite increased focus on climate policies and measures at all societal levels, the causal connection between the oil and gas industry and climate change is obfuscated in the public debate in Norway. This project argues that such a condition prevents constructive debates about the future of the oil industry. It explores the factors that maintain this disconnection and examines the opportunities for professional journalism to challenge it. Existing research highlights the various characteristics of the “Norwegian climate paradox”, where Norway aims to be in the forefront of the fight against climate change while simultaneously being one of the world’s largest exporters of oil and gas. Media and journalism scholars have identified double standards in journalism and the hegemonic influence of the oil industrial complex. Sociologists have emphasised how the pressing ambiguities of climate and oil has led to various coping strategies, linking these to the high degree of climate scepticism found among the Norwegian public. Building on these insights and focusing on the period after the adoption of the Paris agreement, this project explores new methods to better capture and understand the dynamics that obscure a debate about the future of the oil industry in Norway. The project focuses on how key actors, including journalists, narrate climate and oil issues in the media in liminal moments, when societal structures are destabilised, such as during the corona crisis. In these moments, meaning making intensifies to address ambiguities that arise at societal, group and individual levels. Studying narration during liminal times can thus reveal both opportunities and obstacles for emerging narratives, which in turn can help understand climate (in)action. By attending to “narrative work” and applying the method of linkage – how actors connect various elements in their narratives – this project pinpoints how actors narratively navigate away from the climate-oil connection, sometimes creating “liminal narratives” where the meanings of time and space are altered. This project suggests that, when supported by social imaginary theory, the linkage method can produce a more nuanced and layered understanding of the underlying conditions necessary for the transformative change needed to address climate change. A key finding is that the social imaginary of the “Norwegian oil adventure” broadly underpins the narrative work done by various actors, serving as a narrative resource in grappling with oilclimate issues. This implies that the past (beginning with the discovery of oil) is viewed as rich and successful, with little or no vision extending beyond the oil age. Given the challenge of envisioning a future beyond oil in media narratives, the project also explores the emergence of “future climate stories” in journalism, in which a post-oil society is depicted. Through text analysis and interviews with the journalists behind these stories, the project finds that such narratives have the potential to profoundly engage readers. Journalists also find them a useful tool for engaging readers about climate change within the bounds of their profession.