Heat in the Media: Pleasant Weather or a Climate Challenge? A Content Analysis of Spanish TV and Newspapers

Abstract

This paper aims to describe the news coverage by 15 Spanish newspapers and television outlets of the climatic phenomenon of heat, and to identify groups of media according to the agenda and emotions present in their coverage. Through an automated content analysis —topic modeling, sentiment analysis, and emotion analysis— of 16,244 headlines published between 2007 and 2025. Five thematic groups were detected, listed from most to least prevalent: meteorology, society, incidents, environment, and economy. Meteorological coverage has experienced a sustained decline over the past fifteen years, giving way to other approaches such as social issues—particularly health, leisure, and food-related advice—and, to a lesser extent, heat-related accidents. From a sentiment perspective, high temperatures are portrayed much more positively during the colder months, when they are interpreted as a sign of good weather rather than as a consequence of global warming. Four groups of media outlets emerge according to their coverage of heat: television channels, which are strongly focused on meteorology; progressive media, with more problematizing approaches; Okdiario, whose coverage is mainly cheerful and socially oriented; and the remaining newspapers, which address heat through frames of surprise, fear, and sadness. The study reveals a widespread type of media treatment that, instead of warning about the consequences of climate change, decontextualizes the phenomenon and turns it into an unexpected meteorological event that is sometimes celebrated, with solutions framed primarily in individual terms.