Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1844
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1844
04 Jul 2024
 | 04 Jul 2024

Droughts and Media: when and what do the newspapers talk about the droughts in England?

Inhye Kong, Jan Seibert, and Ross S. Purves

Abstract. The UK is traditionally known for its wet climate, but droughts are also relatively commonplace. Using newspapers as a medium of public communication, this study explores the timing and content of media coverage of droughts in England. We constructed a corpus from newspaper articles related to droughts in England to analyse the temporal alignment of media coverage with meteorological anomalies and, using topic modelling, the emerging topics covered by drought-related articles in newspapers. Our findings reveal that media coverage generally coincides with meteorological drought, but the inverse case is not always the case, suggesting additional conditions to generate media coverage (e.g., seasonality, precedent condition of long-term precipitation shortage). Dominant topics include the status of water deficiency and weather forecasts, the mismanagement of water companies and the enforcement of hosepipe bans, highlighting current challenges in water management practices in England.

Publisher's note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this preprint. The responsibility to include appropriate place names lies with the authors.
Inhye Kong, Jan Seibert, and Ross S. Purves

Status: final response (author comments only)

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-1844', Anonymous Referee #1, 08 Jul 2024
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Inhye Kong, 12 Jul 2024
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-1844', Sheila Saia, 03 Sep 2024
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Inhye Kong, 04 Oct 2024
  • RC3: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-1844', Caitlyn Hall, 06 Sep 2024
    • AC3: 'Reply on RC3', Inhye Kong, 04 Oct 2024
Inhye Kong, Jan Seibert, and Ross S. Purves
Inhye Kong, Jan Seibert, and Ross S. Purves

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Short summary
This study explores the timing and content of media coverage (i.e., newspaper articles) of droughts in England. We found that media coverage generally coincides with meteorological drought, but the inverse case did not always generate media coverage. Dominant topics include the water deficiency and weather forecasts, but also the mismanagement of water companies and hosepipe bans, highlighting current challenges in water management practices in England.