Hot Planet News Media's Hot Button

Michael Hedges November 3, 2021 - Follow on Twitter

News editors follow trends closely, intimately, almost as much as the advertising people. Of course, there is a relationship. People everywhere tune-in, read - not to forget subscribe - according to needs and interests, which are diligently surveyed. Editors regularly scanned digital traffic and social media data for clues to the daily zeitgeist until discovering everything there is fake news. Intuition, then, prevails, at least until the publisher decides.

The COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland has given climate reporting a major showcase. The first three days was largely given over to political issues, drawing in those journalistic specialists to dutifully report the comings, goings and statements of various world leaders. Those not attending received considerable attention. Major broadcast networks sent crews and famous anchors fit for the occasion. Publishers and news agencies, all with impressive digital output, scoured the halls and environs for exclusive interviews with important people.

The next ten days, through November 12, will be different, mostly filled with technical and scientific reports and discussions. Climate, environment and financial specialists will be taking over. In the six decades since Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking Silent Spring (1962) climate and environmental journalism now encompasses all aspects of the natural world and change-related disruptions, including effects on health, agriculture, migration and economics. “There’s no planet B,” say the activists.

Several news organizations employ specialist environment reporters. Fiona Harvey has covered that beat since 2004, first for the Financial Times, now for the Guardian. Speaking at a Women in Journalism panel, quoted by Press Gazette (November 2), Ms Harvey warned that crisis language in reporting COP26 results poses to journalism. “I hope that people take a balanced view,” she said, “because seeing these things as either a triumph or disaster, which is what many people are inclined to do, is just awful and doesn’t help anyone. It’s not proper journalism.”

She also reflected on “impartiality,” a particularly hot topic in the UK recently, and being at variance with activists. "I try to write objectively and I talk to all sides,” she noted. “That does not include talking to climate deniers, because that's a view that's completely contrary to established climate science. But it does involve talking to people who are affected by climate change, people who might be affected by the transition away from fossil fuels and so on and people who are wary about the impacts of climate change on them.”

On the same panel was Financial Times climate editor Emiliya Mychasuk, who explained the special relationships involved for the business and financial newspaper that “have been and continues to be a constant battle.” It’s tough getting some readers to engage, she added. “There's little in the media we can do about that really. It goes to this very fundamental existential point of do societies get the media and the government they deserve, the fourth estate they deserve?” That’s a riff on Alexis De Tocqueville’s “In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve,” which was turned by American journalist and social critic HL Mencken to “people deserve the government they get.”

In October the Guardian re-launched a weekly environment-focused newsletter to “cut through through the clamour of climate crisis news.” UK television broadcaster Sky News brought The Daily Climate Show to the airwaves last March and also offers a weekly podcast. The Climate Issue newsletter from the Economist hit the ground in 2019. The New York Times launched theirs in 2017. This list goes on and on. For their part the Financial Times lifted the paywall for November 3rd - one day - to allow the casual reader a peak at all that is offered and has published a 24 page supplement.

Obviously, with COP26 in Glasgow UK news media has, mostly, gone all in for climate and environmental reporting. The endeavor, though, is global. Media development specialist Internews formed Earth Journalism Network in 2004 to facilitate capacity-building for environmental journalists in developing countries. In cooperation with The Scotsman and a grant from the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, Internews awarded 20 fellowships for reporting on COP26, 15 attending in person. The Scotsman is also publishing their work.

See also...

• Climate summit hears appeal for journalist protections
  "something that is self-evident"