Transforming Climate Change Reporting: Unveiling the Impact of Cross-Platform Integration in the Digital Era – A Comparative Analysis of Dawn and The News

This research explores how platformization has transformed the presentation of climate change news by two leading English-language Pakistani newspapers—’Dawn’ and ’The News’. With digitalization, news organizations adapt to the growing need for online presence in the competitive digital environment. Platformization here refers to the rise of social media companies and their integration into news organizations to disseminate news and enhance readership. This research is not about any discourse analysis of climate change news content. Rather, the main purpose is to understand how climate change news is being transformed on various platforms of ’Dawn’ and ’The News’. A detailed content analysis was done for 707 climate change-related news stories collected over four months from digital platforms including websites, E-papers, and official Facebook, Instagram, and X accounts. The study looks into how content transforms in terms of length, font, and visuals when shifting from websites and E-papers to social media platforms. Both organizations exhibit distinct patterns in digital adaptation. Findings show ’Dawn’ is more aware of platform affordances, while ’The News’ lags behind. Using the theory of affordances, this research explains how platforms influence news presentation. Social media platforms are not substitutes for websites and E-papers; they act more as attention-catchers. Climate change news on social media is shorter and often compromised. While platformization is useful for audience gain and retention, it is not helpful for informing audiences deeply about climate change. News on social media provides bits and pieces, and readers relying only on apps are receiving partial information. The real challenge lies in the fact that newspapers are business entities, and profit often comes before public interest. Future studies should explore journalists’ and organizations’ stances on this digital shift and how platformization affects genres like climate change journalism in the long run.