Human-Centered or Eco-Centered? Evaluating Anthropocentrism in Dawn’s Climate Change Discourse

This study investigates the framing of climate change in Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English-language newspaper, during 2024–2025. Drawing on Stibbe’s (2021) Stories We Live By framework, the analysis categorizes reporting into anthropocentric and ecocentric discourse models. A corpus-assisted discourse approach was employed, with tools such as keyword analysis, collocation, and concordance lines used to examine the linguistic construction of climate narratives. The findings reveal that coverage is predominantly anthropocentric, foregrounding risks to human societies, adaptation strategies, infrastructure, and policy measures. Such framings highlight urgent economic and social vulnerabilities but often marginalize ecological interdependence by treating the environment primarily as a backdrop for human concerns. Ecocentric perspectives, though less frequent, emerge in discussions of glacial retreat, ecosystem degradation, and sustainable infrastructure, framing humans as part of wider ecological systems. Overall, Dawn’s discourse illustrates a strong human-centered orientation with occasional ecocentric moments, reflecting broader tensions in environmental communication. Encouraging greater balance between anthropocentric and ecocentric framings, as suggested in Stibbe’s ecolinguistic model, may enhance public understanding of climate change as both a social and ecological challenge.