Media reporting of climate change crisis in Pakistan: Identifying corrective strategies

Abstract

This article analyzes the perspective of journalists on the media coverage of climate change crisis in Pakistan. For this purpose, 26 journalists who were responsible for climate related events were interviewed. Overall, the study found that professional and economic factors were responsible for the lack of media interest in this important topic. Professionally, journalists said they were required to report on newsworthy events. Since apart from the occasional climate related destructive events, most of the climate news lacked drama, sensationalism and political consequences—thus not fulfilling the news selection criteria and hence were ignored. Likewise, media in Pakistan is facing financial crunch. Climate news needed dedicated reporters and lot of resources. Comparatively, political news was easy to get and attract larger audiences. As a solution, the journalists called for changes in the existing political discourse on the issue and emphasized that media should play a more socially responsible role to highlight the enormity of situation in Pakistan.