David Robbins
Dr
I am Director of the DCU Centre for Climate and Society, a research centre aimed at bringing inter and transdisciplinary perspectives from the social sciences and humanities to the climate crisis.
I am an Associate Professor at the School of Communications. My research interests are centred around media representations of climate change, journalism practice as it relates to the coverage of environmental matters and media framing effects.
I welcome approaches from PhD candidates who wish to study the broad area of climate change communication.
I also have an interest in, and have written about, mobile journalism (Mojo) and social media. I completed a Masters degree by research at DCU and my PhD (2018) research concerned the topic of print media coverage of climate change in Ireland from 2007 to 2016. My thesis was subsequently published as a book by Routledge.
I teach on the undergraduate and post-graduate journalism programmes at DCU, delivering modules on reporting, writing, design and mobile journalism.
I have also worked at a senior level in the media in Ireland, for the Irish Times, Cara magazine and for various titles in Independent News and Media. I was features editor of the Evening Herald, assistant and associate editor of the Irish Independent and launch editor of the Irish Independent compact edition. I have experience as a reporter, editor, columnist, broadcaster and feature writer. I wrote a weekly column for the Irish Independent from 2005 to 2015 and had a weekly radio column on RTÉ's 'Drivetime'.
I worked as an advisor to the Minister for the Environment up to 2011 and continue to be involved in local politics. I have also worked as a non-profit consultant.
Book
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Robbins, David (2019) Climate Change, Politics and the Press in Ireland. London: Routledge Focus. [Link] |
Book Chapter
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Robbins, D. (2022) 'Coverage of Natural Disasters' In: SAGE Encyclopedia of Journalism. Thousand Oaks, California : SAGE Publications. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781544391199.n264 | |
| 2020 | Robbins, D (2020) 'Climate Change and the Media' In: Ireland and the Climate Crisis. London : Palgrave. | |
| 2020 | David Robbins; Diarmuid Torney; Pat Brereton (2020) 'Introduction' In: Ireland and the Climate Crisis. London : Palgrave. [Link] |
Edited Book
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | David Robbins;Diarmuid Torney;Pat Brereton (Ed.). (2020) Ireland and the Climate Crisis. London: Palgrave, [Link] |
Peer Reviewed Journal
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | (2024) 'Policy and politics: How specialist farming media frame climate action'. Journal of Rural Studies, . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103396 | |
| 2023 | David Robbins (2023) 'A history of digital environmental journalism at the BBC and the Guardian'. Journalism, . [Link] https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849231179785 | |
| 2023 | Rabia Qusien; David Robbins (2023) 'Science Journalism in Pakistan: The Challenges Faced by Environmental Reporters'. Journalism Studies, . [Link] https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2023.2201854 | |
| 2022 | Pringle, Anna; Robbins, David (2022) 'From denial to delay: Climate change discourses in Ireland'. Administration, 20 (3):59-84. https://doi.org/10.2478/admin-2022-0019 | |
| 2023 | Qusien, Rabia; Robbins, David (2023) 'Media coverage of CPEC in Pakistan: the case of the missing frame'. Climate and Development, 15 (1). [DOI] | |
| 2021 | Robbins, D.; Wheatley, D. (2021) 'Complexity, Objectivity, and Shifting Roles: Environmental Correspondents March to a Changing Beat'. JOURNALISM PRACTICE, 15 . [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2024 | Robbins, David (2024) 'A history of digital environmental journalism at the BBC and the Guardian'. Journalism, 25 (5). [DOI] | |
| 2020 | Robbins, D (2020) 'Postcards from the Edge'. Estudios Irlandeses, (15):296-329. [Link] | |
| 2019 | Robbins, David (2019) 'The media and climate change'. CLIMATE CHANGE, POLITICS AND THE PRESS IN IRELAND, . | |
| 2020 | Robbins, David (2020) 'Climate Change Frame Production: Perspectives from Government Ministers and Senior Media Strategists in Ireland'. ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION-A JOURNAL OF NATURE AND CULTURE, 14 (4). [DOI] | |
| 2019 | Robbins, David (2019) 'Media coverage of climate change in Ireland'. CLIMATE CHANGE, POLITICS AND THE PRESS IN IRELAND, . | |
| 2019 | Robbins, David (2019) 'Communicating climate change in the new media environment'. CLIMATE CHANGE, POLITICS AND THE PRESS IN IRELAND, . | |
| 2019 | Robbins, David (2019) 'Ministers, handlers, and hacks The competition to frame climate change'. CLIMATE CHANGE, POLITICS AND THE PRESS IN IRELAND, . | |
| 2019 | Robbins, David (2019) 'Climate change as a complex social problem'. CLIMATE CHANGE, POLITICS AND THE PRESS IN IRELAND, . | |
| 2016 | David Robbins and Pat Brereton (2016) 'Claims and Frames: How the news media cover climate change'. Teaching Media Quarterly, 4 (3). [Link] | |
| 2016 | (2016) 'Claims and Frames: How the news media cover climate change'. Teaching Media Quarterly, . | |
| 2016 | (2016) 'Morality versus politics: how the Irish media framed the Pope’s encyclical on climate change'. Studies Irish Review, . | |
| 2020 | Robbins, D. (2020) 'Climate Change Frame Production: Perspectives from Government Ministers and Senior Media Strategists in Ireland'. Environmental Communication, 14 . [Link] [DOI] |
Other Journal
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | David Robbins (2016) 'Morality versus politics: how the Irish media framed the Pope’s encyclical on climate change' (Winter 2016) . [Link] |
Conference Contribution
Published Report
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Colleen Murrell, Kirsty Park, David Robbins, Dawn Wheatley (2022) Digital News Report Ireland 2022. Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, . [Link] | |
| 2020 | Kirk N, Park, K, Robbins D et al (2020) Digital News Report Ireland 2020. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, . | |
| 2019 | Culloty, Smeaton, Suiter, Murphy, Brereton, Zhang & Robbins (2019) Climate Change in Irish Media. Environmental Protection Agency, . [Link] |
Newspaper
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Robbins, David (2019) Why I’ll scroll past the news app that puts nothing back. NEWSA [Link] | |
| 2019 | Robbins, David (2019) RTE's climate change coverage was a masterclass. NEWSA [Link] | |
| 2019 | Robbins, David (2019) Levy on tech firms could help to revive our news industry. NEWSA [Link] | |
| 2019 | Robbins, David (2019) The children have spoken - and now the grown-ups must act. NEWSA [Link] | |
| 2019 | Robbins, David (2019) In Ireland, even the cycle lanes are really there for cars. NEWSA [Link] | |
| 2019 | Robbins, David (2019) Dublin airport’s new runway will be a carbon fest. NEWSA [Link] | |
| 2018 | Robbins, David (2018) Budget 2019: A taxing decision avoided — for now. NEWSA [Link] | |
| 2018 | Robbins, David (2018) Met Éireann has a duty to inform on climate change. NEWSA [Link] | |
| 2018 | Robbins, David (2018) The drivers versus cycling debate is getting us nowhere. NEWSA [Link] | |
| 2015 | David Robbins (2015) Why the media doesn't care about climate change. Dublin: NEWSA [Link] | |
| 2015 | David Robbins (2015) Climate change: Soothing rhetoric is not enough to save the planet. NEWSA [Link] |
Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2024) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.
Research Interests
I am interested in how climate change in represented in the media, and in the factors affecting such representations. My research in concerned with levels of coverage, and with how coverage is framed. As a practising journalist, I am interested in how journalism practice influences the reporting of climate change.