Drought, debate, and uncertainty: measuring reporters' knowledge and ignorance about climate change

Wilson, Kim

doi:10.1088/0963-6625/9/1/301

Cited by 124 publications

(110 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Studies have shown that the mass media has been a primary source of climate news for the public (e.g., Brulle et al 2012;Nelkin 1995;Wilson 2000a), journalists (Wilson 2000b), and policymakers alike (Sundblad et al 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global issue, developed country bias: the Paris climate conference as covered by daily print news organizations in 13 nations

2017

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To understand how media portrayed the pivotal 2015 UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris, we assessed 2580 articles that appeared during the 2 weeks of the conference in the online versions of the two or three leading print newspapers in four developed countries, six emerging economies, and three developing countries: the USA, France, UK, Australia, India, China, South Africa, Brazil, Bolivia, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. Categorization by key topics revealed that much of the coverage left readers with little understanding of many of the issues discussed at COP21, and in particular, those of high priority to developing nations. For example, there was little coverage of adaptation to climate impacts and far higher coverage of emissions reductions (mitigation). Print stories largely were updates on the talks, or focused on activists, the actions of world leaders at the conference, and the environmental effects of climate change. Furthermore, articles under-reported key issues for poorer nations such as equity, human rights, and the effects on human populations. Online coverage by print news organizations was heavily skewed towards the developed world, with little discussion of the most vulnerable countries or the issues that are important to them. These trends highlight the bias of coverage to developed nation perspectives and the persistence of journalistic norms that seek to emphasize drama, novelty, and balance in news coverage.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global issue, developed country bias: the Paris climate conference as covered by daily print news organizations in 13 nations

2017

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“…Graeme Pearman called the evidence facing the Toronto global conference of concerned scientists and bureaucrats a 'clarion call to politicians to take action' (Lowe 1989: 4 In the United States, media research has suggested the same phenomenon: media stories peaked between 1988 and the early 1990s, and scientists were a primary source of information during that early period. Environmental journalists recalled that media coverage picked up again around 1997, when the Kyoto Protocol was under discussion (Wilson 2000).…”

Section: : Coming To Grips With a Terrifying Global Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Warming and Climate Change: What Australia knew and buried...then framed a new reality for the public

Taylor¹

2014

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“…Science communication scholar Kris Wilson posed more than 70 questions about global climate change to members of the Society of Environmental Journalism, a group that accepts into 'active' membership only individuals who produce stories for mass media outlets that serve the public (Wilson, 2000). He then explored predictors of knowledge levels, among them whether the respondent had majored in an 'environmental science' and the percent of time the respondent devoted to covering environmental issues.…”

Section: Where's the Evidence?mentioning

confidence: 99%

How valuable is formal science training to science journalists?

Dunwoody

2004

revistacomsoc

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The science writing community in the United States increasingly privileges formal science training as part of a science journalist's 'tool kit.' This article asks if existing research supports the argument that such formal training offers attributes critical to a science writer's work and finds that the answer is no. In studies of journalists generally, as well as a very small number of studies of science writers specifically, newsroom socialization and number of years on the job are more important predictors of journalists' levels of knowledge and their attitudes about professional behaviors than is the nature or extent of the their formal education. The article closes by posing a set of research questions that may permit a better understanding of the possible role of education in the work of science journalists.

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Drought, debate, and uncertainty: measuring reporters' knowledge and ignorance about climate change

Cited by 124 publications

References 16 publications

Global issue, developed country bias: the Paris climate conference as covered by daily print news organizations in 13 nations

Global issue, developed country bias: the Paris climate conference as covered by daily print news organizations in 13 nations

Global Warming and Climate Change: What Australia knew and buried...then framed a new reality for the public

How valuable is formal science training to science journalists?

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