Metaphor, ideology, and climate policy in Moroccan news: a corpus-based analysis

Abstract

Metaphors play a constitutive role in how individuals conceptualize abstract and complex issues such as climate change. In climate change communication, metaphorical framings influence public understanding and policy debates, which makes them central to both conceptualization and persuasion. Yet, despite the growing body of scholarship, existing meta-analyses reveal a pronounced geographical imbalance: perspectives from the Global South remain underrepresented in scholarship, even though these regions are among the most vulnerable to climate impacts. This study addresses this gap by investigating metaphorical framings of climate change and climate action in Moroccan online news discourse. Drawing on a corpus of 195 articles from three leading news outlets, the analysis employs corpus-based metaphor identification techniques within the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the Event-Structure Metaphor. The corpus exhibits multiple metaphorical patterns; among these, the analysis identifies three interrelated conceptual metaphors: CLIMATE CHANGE IS RAPID MOTION, CLIMATE ACTION IS A JOURNEY, and CLIMATE ACTION IS A RACE—each of which draws on the embodied domains of motion, journey, and racing. Findings demonstrate how these metaphorical framings reproduce urgency, progress, and competitiveness while embedding neoliberal ideological orientations that align with global climate narratives and national policy agendas.