Donors Do Not Trust

Focusing on a story exposing Donors Trust (DT) as a funding source for climate denial campaigns, we introduce actor-network theory (ANT) as a methodological tool for studying online intermedia agenda-setting. The DT story, unveiled by prominent British media in early 2013, had the potential to become a global media sensation. However, this did not occur in two distinct communication actor-networks, Russia and Canada, raising questions regarding climate change journalism and agenda-setting in contemporary networked news environments. This article takes a fresh approach to studying agenda-setting processes by using ANT to trace connections between national climate agendas, networks of power and sites of mediated information. By mapping ties between attributes of DT story actor-networks, it illuminates moments that preclude or facilitate intermedia agenda-setting in online media networks. This demonstrates ANT’s potential to help better understand processes of information dissemination in an era characterised by the exceptional interconnectedness of media landscapes.