Hoax, Fraud, Scam, or Lie: A Corpus Analysis of Framing Strategies Used by Fox News to Dismiss Climate Change Over 24 Years

Analyzing 10,677 dialogues from 7373 Fox News broadcast scripts over 24 years (2000–2023), this study examines how Fox News deploys climate dismissive framing in its content. Nine prominent climate dismissive framing strategies, including Person, Weather, Cause, Ridiculing, Sneaky, Controversy, Danger, Crazy, and Ideology, were identified. Findings show that of the 10,677 dialogues, 6,396 used at least one dismissive framing strategy. Among those strategies, Sneaky was used most frequently while Cause was least common. Many framing strategies were used simultaneously to reinforce climate-skeptical narratives. The climate dismissive framing was used inconsistently over time, spiking in times of U.S. presidential elections, the Paris Agreement, Climategate, and Al Gore’s release of An Inconvenient Truth. Results from time-series analyses indicate that weather/climate disaster events significantly predicted the use of several dismissive frames (i.e., Weather, Sneaky, and Danger). Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.