Television's role in Climate Change Communication – Salience and Audiences

In an era marked by multiple crises, climate change stands out as an urgent yet under-prioritized issue. Despite public interest, only 2.2% of broadcast minutes on television explicitly address climate change. Drawing on agenda setting research and theories of selective exposure, we selected Germany as a prime example for understanding the role of television in industrialized democracies. We created one of the largest datasets of its kind—61 days with 19 hours per day across 20 TV stations, totalling 23,478 hours. Thus, this study offers new methodological pathways for analysing climate communication in television. Complementing the content analysis, we conducted a survey (n=1,445) in parallel and segmented audiences into ‘Global Warming Six’. By combining both methods, we show that climate-aware audiences gravitate towards news and information formats, whereas sceptical groups prefer entertainment, where climate coverage is nearly invisible. Nearly 80% of climate change coverage is dedicated to informational and news-oriented formats, while the topic remains largely absent from entertainment programming. Especially in news and information formats, political actors dominate airtime, contradicting audience preferences for greater diversity. Across all formats, women are significantly underrepresented in the climate discourse, widely unnoticed by audiences. These findings highlight substantial gaps in fostering socially inclusive communication and engagement through television, offering new insights for climate communicators.