Nerlich et al. (2023): Biochar in the British print news media: an analysis of promissory discourse and the creation of expectations about carbon removal
Brigitte Nerlich, Carol Morris, Catherine Price, Holly Harris IN: Science as Culture, https://doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2023.2285057
Biochar is amongst a growing suite of approaches developed to address the climate crisis by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; yet public awareness of biochar is low. In this situation, mass-media reporting plays an important role in making an issue public and in creating expectations about its risks and benefits. In British broadsheet newspapers, a promissory, future-oriented discourse on biochar has emerged that is rhetorically configured through, for example, evaluative adjectives, verbs, hyperbole, and allusions to literary and cultural symbols that confer a sense of mystique.