Tuesday, December 10 at 2:00 pm
Shadows To Spotlight: Climate In The Media
MSNBC host Chris Hayes tweeted in 2018 that every time he has covered climate it has been a “palpable ratings killer,” while This American Life host Ira Glass says climate change is “weirdly resistant to journalism.” So what makes climate such a hard sell for storytellers and broadcast media?
“The topic comes up, you feel this spike of anxiety, and then you just look away,” says Ellen Horne, who was Executive Producer of WNYC’s Radiolab for 12 years. “Engaging it is too challenging.”
Before moving to radio, Horne worked for the Coral Reef Alliance, and post-Radiolab she continues to produce climate-related audio stories. But in her time at the hugely popular radio show that helped launch the podcast and storytelling boom, she never figured out how to do a climate story that would meet Radiolab’s high narrative bar.
“It was the kind of story where turns out it's just not that surprising,” she says. “You think about it for a second and you're like oh I see, they're just planning for when things get warmer; that’s not that surprising.”
Nevertheless, coverage of climate change has surged since Donald Trump took office. Indeed, as climate disruption hits the economy in more ways, it is increasingly being covered as a business story.
“People say Wall Street follows the money and this is just where the money's going,” says Patrick Temple-West, who covers global energy for the Financial Times. “We want to be covering climate change as a business – who’s up who's down, who’s making money who's losing money.”
But some environmentalists bristle at this kind of hands-off coverage. They think the climate situation is so dire that journalists should lean in and help solve it. But some reporters on the climate beat say that’s not their job.
“Just like crime reporters and not vigilantes, we should not be climate advocates,” says Amy Harder, who reports on energy and climate change for Axios. “Ultimately what I think journalism is here for is present [the] facts, even if they may not fit with a certain agenda.
To listen to the audio of “Shadows To Spotlight: Climate In The Media” on Climate One online, please click HERE.