The European Media Have Odd Approaches, When Dealing With Stories About Extreme Heat

An analysis of the visual representations accompanying stories about extreme heat in the British, Dutch, French and German media, suggest a somewhat 'schizophrenic' mentality (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/14/sun-photos-climate-breakdown). Stories mentioning extreme heat, published in the Summer of 2019, were examined. The visuals used, had two broad themes. The first theme (very prevalant in the UK), depicts 'fun in the sun', with people enjoying themselves on the beach. The second tries to convey 'the idea of heat', using red and orange colours (often associated with heat and/or danger in Western cultures). People were largely absent (e.g. a picture of a thermometer) or, if present, were silouetted against the sun. There was often some conflating of the Northern European tradition of looking forward to a 'normal' period of sunny weather. Some articles actually seemed to welcome a hotter, climate-changed future. Either way, there was often a striking mismatch between the text and the visuals. The visuals appeared to largely ignore concerns of those folk (old people, babies, people with pre-existing health conditions or residents in poor quality housing) most vulnerable to heatwaves. Heatwaves can be killers.