Two Decades of Flooded Stories
Unpacking Media Discourses on Rain Disasters and Environmental Risks in Ghana Through Machine Learning
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19480346 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nana Kwame Osei Fordjour (0000-0002-0598-3646, University of Maryland, College Park, corresponding author), Anani Yao Kuwornu (0009-0002-5520-6658, University of Maryland, College Park) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-15 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-04 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Communication (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1752-4032 • E-ISSN: 1752-4040 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17524032.2026.2665705 |
| OpenAlex | W7160179622 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 46 |
Media discourses on environmental disasters play a crucial role in shaping public opinion, perceptions of the disaster, policy formation, and management strategies. This study employed a computational approach to examine the African media agenda and sentiments surrounding flood disasters in Ghana over 20 years (2004–2024). Findings uncovered media discourses around the complex climate change paradox, government disaster preparedness, and risk management, as well as rural/urban practices and their effects. Results also indicated that the majority of coverage was positive (69.45%), whereas less than half (30.55%) was negative, with no neutral coverage. In addition, the study observed positive sentiments regarding the coverage of the proactive steps taken by the government and its agencies in responding to the disaster. In contrast, negative sentiments focused on the loss of lives and the destruction of property. The study discussed the role of cultural norms in these findings to contribute to the praxis of media and environmental disaster communication
Climate change · Risk assessment · Unpacking · Work (physics) · Disaster Management and Resilience · Flood Risk Assessment and Management · Public Relations and Crisis Communication
Routledge Handbook of Risk, Crisis, and Disaster Communication
Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) and topic modeling
Quantitative analysis of large amounts of journalistic texts using topic modelling
Probabilistic topic models
Analysing media framing of cyclone Amphan
Exploring the Prevalence of Agenda-Setting Theory in Africa-Focused Research, 2000–2020
Comparative analysis of CNN coverage of weather-related disasters in USA, Japan, and India
News Media Coverage of Climate Change in India 1997–2016
Connecting Extreme Heat Events to Climate Change
Problems and Opportunities in Agenda-Setting Research
Trends, frames and discourse networks
Environmental journalism in East Africa
Risks of communication
Consolidating Inter-Media Agenda-Setting Research in Ghana
Making Sense of Media and Politics
Narrating Vulnerability and Reshaping Resilience
River Communities, Disaster Science, and the Politics of Water Safety
How are Africans talking about climate change and who is doing the talking
Comparing the agenda setting role of the Pakistani and Indian newspapers in disasters
Climate Change, the Journalists and “the Engaged”
Social Media, Personalization, Visuals, and Strategic Political Communication
Climate change in news media across the globe
Analysis of Media Agenda Setting During and After Hurricane Katrina
Local news sentiment towards Fema recovery efforts after Hurricane Florence in North Carolina
Comparing Disaster News on Twitter and Television
If you had been with us
The Evolution of Agenda-Setting Research
The Appeal of Qualitative Methods to Traditional Agenda-Setting Research
The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media
| Highly cited | No |
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