USE OF TERMINOLOGY

U.S. news media, journalism, news industry

All references to U.S. news media, journalism, or the news industry should refer to the “forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public” as described by American Press Institute (n.d.). For the purpose of this thesis project, these terms will only refer to print newspapers and their digital content online. This should only include reputable national newspapers, such as The New York Times, Washington Post, and USA TODAY, or local newspapers, such as The Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and The Dallas Morning News. Tabloids and entertainment news, such as Buzzfeed, are not included.

The climate crisis, global warming, climate change

The terms climate change, climate crisis, and global warming all refer to “adverse effects of the climate,” which the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992) has defined as “changes in the physical environment or biota resulting from climate change which have significant deleterious effects on the composition, resilience or productivity of natural and managed ecosystems or on the operation of socio-economic systems or on human health and welfare.” For the purpose of this thesis project, these terms will include all issues adjacent to the warming of the globe, such as wildlife extinction, agriculture loss, and natural disasters.