Climate Cover-Up

 Recently I read the Climate Cover-Up by James Hoggan, and found the book to be a difficult read. Hoggan, who is a lawyer and public relations practitioner starts off the book by talking about how he came into the climate change conversation and discusses the founding of his blog DeSmogBlog. Hoggan discusses how companies and goverment entities have tried to "cover-up" that climate change was happening by using actual scientist who denied it in written reports.
 Though the things Hoggan mentioned in his book may have been true, I found it hard to accept the things he said. Hoggan spent a lot of his time in the book "name dropping" and not really explaining why or how these mentioned were relevant to the supposed cover up. I was also bothered by the fact that his book was very one-sided and unbalanced. I felt that Hoggan should have told a complete story or presented more detailed information.
 Though I am not denying that climate change is a real issue nor that their are people who deny climate change is happening, I would have just appreciated a more rounded view from Hoggan. So I suggest that you read the book for your self to create your own opinion.

Framing

According to the FrameWorks Institute, in an article called "The FrameWorks Perspective: Strategic Frame Analysis" framing is an approach to communications research and practice that pays attention to the public's deeply held worldviews and widely held assumptions. Framing happens when the speaker (who can be an actual speaker or writer) says things in a way that makes them take on a different meaning or makes the audience think certain things about what has been said. 

Framing is important in public relations because it allows the practitioner to put the message into certain contexts that the public is "comfortable" with and keep the publics opinion positive for the topic. 

One of the current events I found framing to be used a lot in was the recent Sea World whale trainer death. When the death first happened, the reports were saying that the trainer went down on accident and was tripped by the whale. Then later reports were release that the whale had actually pulled the trainer in. Then a few days later Sea World did a press conference to discuss the incident. The press conference took place in front of the glass tank that held the whales. As the president of Sea World spoke, viewers of the televised conference could see the killer whales peacefully swimming by and even at time coming up to the window and staring at the press core. The press conference was framed to show that the whales were safe, gentle and that the trainer would not want for the whale shows to stop. 

I think that the press conference was perfectly framed and helped to restore faith the whale shows at Sea World. This was evident in that the attendance for the whale show the next day was full.