Media Coverage of Climate Activist Groups in Germany

Climate activist groups aim to address climate change by informing citizens about its risks and potential solutions, and by providing a way for citizens to engage in collective action to change policy. The effectiveness of climate activist groups, some of which engage in disruptive protests, is influenced by how they are portrayed by the news media. Using frequency analysis and GPT-4, we analysed all online news articles from major German newspapers in 2022 and 2023 about the two most prominent climate activist groups, Fridays for Future and Last Generation. A substantial proportion of the articles provides little information about the risks and solutions of climate change, especially when reporting on the more disruptive Last Generation compared to Fridays for Future, which primarily engages in legal protest. Last Generation is also portrayed more negatively, as more violent, and as more polarising. Right-leaning newspapers provide the least information about climate change and portray activist groups most negatively. We discuss the implications of our results for the media, activist groups, and future research.