Insist on louder and better climate news.
Push for Climate Headlines - Calculator
How will you let reporters, editors and news outlets know that climate news is important?
Push for Climate Headlines
Climate change is often the untold story behind many news headlines, like extreme weather, refugees, national security, and public health. And while there is certainly more climate news than before, it still only accounts for a tiny fraction of our news stories - for example, in the US climate made up less than 1% of television news airtime in 2020.
Like, praise and share quality climate stories on social media and ask those not covering the climate crisis with the urgency it deserves, to do better. Subscribe to news outlets covering the climate crisis well, and let them know that’s why you’ve given them your support.
Push for climate change to become a daily, front page story, weaved into relevant news stories ranging from extreme weather and the energy crisis, to food, fashion, football and finance.
REFERENCES
Ask journalists to make the climate connection across all their news topics from food to fashion, football to finance, art to weather.
The Guardian - We’re all climate journalists now’: how the weather took over everything
An environmental policy reporter in Colorado tracked local news coverage of the June 2021 Colorado heatwave and found that less than 4% of the 126 local-news stories referenced climate change.
https://heated.world/p/why-wont-anyone-ask-why
Climate coverage as a whole still made up only 0.4% of overall coverage on corporate broadcast morning, nightly and Sunday morning news shows in 2020
Media Matters - How broadcast TV networks covered climate change in 2020
Climate coverage has increased 55% from 2020. The Media and Climate Change Observatory monitors climate coverage in 127 sources (across newspapers, radio and TV) in 59 countries in seven different regions around the world.
Media and Climate Change Observatory - 2021 Year End Retrospective
“Many news outlets receive advertising money from emissions-intensive industries, and claim that their readers, listeners and viewers don’t want to hear about climate change, despite public opinion polls suggesting the opposite.”
Boston Globe - Americans Want Climate Change News. Media Should Give it to Them.
“Most people are saying they rarely hear climate change news because most people pay attention to local news.”
The Guardian - The media is failing on climate change – here's how they can do better ahead of 2020
“Newsrooms are still not covering climate enough [...] more climate stories does not necessarily equate to quality coverage.” - Abby Rabinowitz from The Columbia Journalism Review
“Repetition and constant reiteration are precisely what we need right now”.
“The media’s failure to connect the dots between climate change and extreme weather happening now in the U.S. is a key part of why Americans don’t perceive climate change to be a major, priority issue [...] A lot of people, even Americans who accept climate science, still believe climate change is something that happens far away, either in the future or in another country.” - Lisa Hymas, the climate and energy program director at Media Matters
New Republic - The Media’s Failure to Connect the Dots on Climate Change