Indian media representations of climate change in a threatened journalistic ecosystem

Abstract

As 2010 unfolds, environmental journalism around the world is fraught with capacity challenges to collectively cover complex and dynamic stories at the human– environment interface. Recent years have seen significant reductions in journalistic ecosystem services. Examples abound: CNN slashed their entire science, technology, and environment reporting unit; the Seattle Post-Intelligencer discontinued their print run; the Los Angeles Times had cut their newsroom staff in half in the last dozen years; the Rocky Mountain News shuttered their doors altogether. It has been estimated that approximately 25% of the news industry’s workforce has been cut since 2001 (Pew 2009; Boykoff 2009). Concurrently, the number of newspapers that featured weekly science sections atrophied, losing nearly two-thirds in the past two decades (Pew 2009; Carroll 2006). In many places in the Global South, journalists continue to lack the capacity and training to cover the intricacies of climate science and policy, as well as lack access to clear, timely and understandable climate-related resources and images (Harbison 2006; Shanahan 2009). Journalists, editors, and organizations surviving newsroom cuts and shortfalls have been left to cover the contours of climate change along tighter deadlines, and with increased multi-platform demands (video, audio and text along with blogs, Twitter, Grogs (see www.getgrogger.com), YouTube postings etc). Moreover, in the name of efficiency, reporters increasingly cover a vast range of beats, making it as difficult as ever to satisfactorily portray the complexities of climate change. Put simply, journalists and editors striving for fair and accurate reporting are getting swamped by these larger scale pressures (Boykoff 2007). Yet in this perilous landscape, 2009 ended with soaring media coverage of climate change around the world. Climate news seemingly flooded the public arena. The