In my September 19, 2019, post Extreme Silence of the Media, I wrote about how the Public Citizen report outlined strategies that local media outlets could use to tie extreme weather events to climate change such as:
Exceptional climate reporting not only connects global warming to local extreme heat events, but discusses how climate change is impacting the community. This reporting puts a local, human face on a sometimes abstract, global phenomenon, providing readers with a deeper understanding of what is at risk, who is most vulnerable, and how the need for action is urgent.
Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Frank Kummer offers up one of the best pieces on the local impact of climate-fueled heat [Weather warning: These Philadelphia neighborhoods get the hottest in a heat wave] within the scope of this report. Timed with the city’s first major heat wave of the summer, Kummer dedicates over 1,000 words to the disproportionate impact of extreme heat on Philadelphia’s urban minority, as well as the organizations scrambling to make these hard-hit communities more resilient in the face of increasing heat. [bolding and article title added]
With a grateful Hat/Tip to jayden, we give a hearty Huzzah to the local Austin, Texas, NBC affiliate KXAN whose meteorologists David Yeomans and Jim Spencer take over NBC News Facebook for climate change discussion by Kristin Currie. The video (click on link to view) was about 17 minutes long. These Weathermen used scientific facts, storm history, and unprecedented rainfall in a conversational setting to explain the local impacts of climate change. Particularly in rural areas, viewers trust the weather reporters that they choose to rely upon for this important everyday information, so hearing this information from such trusted figures can make all the difference between belief or dismissal.
The following talking points were included in their discussion:
- Record-setting triple digit temperatures
- Heat records vs cold records
- Increased flooding events
- Soil moisture: June 2019 vs. September 2019
- Increase in totals during heavy rain events
- Hurricane Harvey’s historic impact on Texas
- Tropical Storm Imelda: 7th wettest tropical cyclone on U.S. record
Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), which originated the Cover Climate Now project with The Nation, reports that the project has fostered conversations in the journalism community. In A new beginning for climate reporting, CJR offers hope reporting that “Our initiative has been embraced by more than 250 news outlets from across the US and around the world—big outlets and small, print and digital, TV and radio—with a combined audience of well over 1 billion people.”
Initially, the following obstacles to climate coverage have emerged from these conversations:
WE DON’T KNOW WHERE TO START.
Columbia Journalism Review found newsrooms who were eager to cover climate yet had no idea of how to start. “Where do we come up with story ideas? Who should our sources be? Can you help us think this through?”
CJR has committed to helping newsrooms going forward.
OUR VIEWERS WILL THINK WE’RE ACTIVISTS.
CJR also found newsrooms where climate coverage was still considered political even if they were not in a conservative area. Such is the profound effect the decades of climate change denial propaganda have had on our public communication.
IT’S TOO LATE; THE PROBLEM IS TOO BIG FOR US TO MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE.
Few reporters would still do the work if they believed it made no difference. It’s our journalistic responsibility to convey what is happening and why, as well as who is trying to fix it, and how. That’s our job as storytellers.
READERS WILL FIND THIS DEPRESSING AND TUNE OUT.
On the contrary, readers and viewers appear to find coverage engaging.
It is a strange time when journalism’s leaders argue against covering a subject that’s undeniably important simply because they’re worried their audience may find it challenging. Is this really where you want your newsroom to be?
WE’RE ALREADY PULLING OUR WEIGHT.
Although a few have been notable exceptions (such as The Guardian which is an original partner in the CCN project), others have felt they were doing an adequate job on their own.
Covering it well may require a bit of cooperation and collaboration that is antithetical to how we usually work. Take this on as a problem that is bigger than your own newsroom.
During this Covering Climate Now week leading up to the UN Climate Summit, we hope that media will break through whatever obstacles they face (including fear of negative feedback from viewers) to do their duty and lay the truth before the public who has the right to know what they are facing.
Blogathon
September 20-27 on DK
September 20 is the launch of an entire week of global climate action. From Friday September 20 to September 27, people of all generations all over the world will be mobilizing.
Here are the dates for the climate strike
https://globalclimatestrike.net/
It has sign ups for strikes all over the world.