News Editors: 3 Ways Your Media Company Can More Effectively Cover Climate Change

Proper climate reporting has become more urgent than ever. As the amount of data on global climate change grows and becomes increasingly more alarming, it is important for media companies to strive for excellence in climate reporting. Entire newsrooms – editors, reporters and marketers alike – should be equipped with the necessary tools to cover the issue and inform readers. As a student at Northwestern University studying journalism and environmental policy, I found two interesting articles to help in this pursuit. Rosalind Donald’s article, The climate crisis is a story for every beat, discusses the roadblocks newsrooms could encounter in science and climate reporting, resulting in a lackluster coverage of climate change issues. Reporting on climate change may misalign with certain news timelines and preconceptions of what reporting should look like. However, Donald makes the case for incorporating climate coverage into multiple forms and sections in order to reach a wider audience and properly represent the issue’s reach.

Photo courtesy of UN Climate Change Twitter, @UNFCC

Newsrooms are constantly learning from their mistakes – and climate reporting is no exception. Covering climate change: What reporters get wrong and how to get it right, a piece by Chloe Reichel gives definitive ways to remedy some common mistakes newsrooms make in their climate reporting. Through an interview with journalist Elizabeth Arnold, Reichel provides tips for everything from story structure to tone. In the end, Arnold provides some helpful examples of “exemplary outlets reporting on climate.” Based on these two articles and my experience in journalism and environmental policy, I have developed three newsroom practices that will advance your coverage of climate issues.

• Localize For Impact – Use people and places in your community to show how climate change is affecting your direct readership.

• Understand The Urgency – Look for every opportunity to incorporate climate change into your reporting, because the issue is ongoing. 

• Specialize Your Staff – Train your journalists on climate science, ensuring everyone in the newsroom is knowledgable on the latest data and trends. 

In your next staff meeting, remember these tips to ensure the entire company is on board with proper climate reporting practices. 

Kira Fahmy is a senior at Northwestern University majoring in Journalism, minoring in Environmental Policy & Culture and a part of the Integrated Marketing Communications certificate program. She is passionate about multimedia storytelling and sustainability.

You can find her @kirafahmy on Twitter or on LinkedIn.