MainDB: The Paradoxes of Climate Change Reporting: A study of landslide news coverage in Hindi language newspapers of Himachal Pradesh, India

Title: The Paradoxes of Climate Change Reporting: A study of landslide news coverage in Hindi language newspapers of Himachal Pradesh, India
NWPWeblink: https://www.cuhimachal.ac.in
NWPTypeOfOrganization: University/education/training organization
NWPGeographicRegion: Asia
Scope of work:
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NWPModalityApproachandMechanism:
NWPEffortsToAddressSOE:
NWPRelevantStakeholders:
NWPFocusonNElossesFlag:
NWPImpactAreas:
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Date of submission:
Abbreviation: CUHP
Activities: Outreach and Communication


Monitoring


Capacity development


Political Networks


Stakeholders’ engagement


Data and information sharing

Adaptation element: Climate observations; Communication and outreach/awareness
Adaptation sector/theme: Community-based adaptation
Climate hazard: Land and forest degradation; Loss of biodiversity
Country: India
NWPDataSource:
Description: The study looks into the existing gaps in the newsrooms of the selected editions of the Hindi-language newspapers reporting on the issues of climate change. It analyzes how climate change stories especially landslide news are covered and reported and are prioritized in daily reporting assignments. It used cross-sectional, descriptive, exploratory and qualitative methods. The primary data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with the working journalists and editorial staff of the selected newspapers. The study approached content analysis to extract themes in the reportage of issues where the newspapers played a crucial role in developing people’s perception of climate change by using their considerable public trust to build acceptance through small narratives. It was observed that the connection between climate change and the local event is seldom made in climate reportage. Although the damage caused was reported extensively, there is little introspection by the newspapers as to the reasons for such catastrophic events. The study finds that there is little to no connection is made to the significance of anthropogenic factors in causing the disaster in all the observed news stories. The attribution to climate change appears mostly in the form of vague throwaway statements or brief quotes from experts.
Expected outcome: While doing this study, we observed that there is very limited scientific literature available focusing on regional climate change and associated issues, especially in the North-Western Himalayan region (Moser, 2016). Moreover, while writing climate stories in state editions, scientists and experts were rarely consulted and quoted. By ignoring the overwhelming scientific consensus, a number of journalist stories in the state editions offset evidence with emotions, conflict with consensus and thus confuse and misinform the audience. As most of the climate stories have complex messages, they need to be told with a strong focus on a certain aspect of the story and a clear approach to suit diverse audiences. A majority of stories analyzed for this study published in state editions of Hindi newspapers focus more on the frightening statistics – to move from denial and despair to action rather than on the solutions to climate change and ways to adapt to its effects.


Reporting climate change stories is not the same as covering politics, crime or sports. They need a larger connection in audiences’ minds and to share the voices and concerns of the marginalized, most vulnerable people who have contributed least to the problem but are suffering most from its impact (Ward, 2011). The challenge of covering climate change stories is two-fold: first, presents information valid in scientific scrutiny and second, it has to understand how and in what ways vulnerable communities adapt to the impacts of climate change. Unfortunately, this aspect is under-reported. The newspapers have a role to play in empowering communities to make informed choices and to react timely to climate change (Olausson, 2014).

Further information: Due to its unique geo-morphological and ecological setting, the landscape in and around Himachal Pradesh has seen changes due to increasing human activities like tourism, and city infrastructure development in the region in the past two decades. At the same time, the state has witnessed natural hazards like earthquakes, landslides, flash floods and wildfires. It can be said with certain confidence that the current process of climate change has increased the frequency of landslides, flash floods and wildfires (Free Press Journal, 2021). Poorly planned unscientific human expansions and interventions have made the region more vulnerable to climatic disasters. Combined with ongoing climate change, human activities over higher altitudes like the construction of dams and roads for micro hydro-power plants, increase in new settlements and conversion of land use from forest to agriculture and/or change in tree species (e.g. cider to pine), have resulted in the alteration of the hydrological cycle in the form of increased run-off and depletion of natural springs (Panwar, 2021).
The science of climate change and/or climate variability is a bit complex as various components of the Earth’s climate system are interacting with each other mostly in a non-linear manner involving positive/negative feedback processes (Boyce, 2009). To develop a basic understanding of the science behind climate change, a fundamental understanding of basic sciences (both natural and physical) is a prerequisite. Though global as well as national agencies like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are actively involved in raising the level of public awareness about climate change through their publications, their reach is limited to academicians and policymakers. In the mission of spreading climate awareness to the greater depths, mass-media organizations involving electronic (e.g. the National Geographic, the Discovery, the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Cable News Network etc.) as well as print media (e.g. the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Times of India, the Indian Express and the Hindu etc.) are playing a crucial role at global as well as national level. It is pertinent to mention here that the characteristics (form and magnitude) of climate change and its implications at the regional level are quite different over different parts of the world (Boykoff, 2011). Thus, the role of mass media organizations working on the regional or state level becomes crucial for disseminating awareness about climate change-related issues to the ultimate stakeholders.
In comparison to big newspapers with an established sophisticated newsroom and trained journalists, the coverage of climate stories is noticeable in state editions of language newspapers, even though the profile of these stories has never been higher. In a hill state like Himachal Pradesh, the public understanding of the subject is low and journalists are no exception as they come from the same community with limited exposure to the issue. The reflection of this can be seen in the stories published in the state editions of Hindi newspapers. The opinions and views presented in these stories are mostly outdated, driven by spin or simply wrong.
In state editions of Hindi language newspapers published from Himachal Pradesh, stories about climatic hazards/disasters reflected in terms of extreme temperature and extreme precipitation events are often written without a brief introduction that covers what, why and how the type of questions about a particular issue like chill or heat waves, cloud burst and flash-floods etc. Moreover, issues such as implications of climate change viz. loss of biodiversity, shift in vegetation, migration of species, loss of food security, and increase of insects/vector-borne diseases etc. hardly get any space. Many times, disastrous events like earthquakes or flash floods are covered just like a simple science/environment story. Most of the journalists working in these state editions of Hindi newspapers are graduates of arts or social sciences and are unwilling or unable to have a better understanding of science. Since, climate change nowadays encompasses the economy, health, security and more, the subject is extremely complex and easy to get wrong. The foremost challenge in covering climate change stories is the requirement for a strong grasp of the fundamentals of the climate debate. This grasp is often lacking and this has contributed to stories out of facts and false balance. The coverage of a recent event – a flash flood-like situation in Dharamshala covered by the state editions of Hindi newspapers was woefully inadequate (Nisbet, 2010). Nearly all the state editions termed the situation as a cloud-burst quoting state sources instead of consulting with qualified scientists which brought chaos and created panic among the state community. The story was quickly picked up by many national TV channels and newspapers, and the visuals of the incident quickly circulated on social media. This is one of the many examples of journalistic balance gone wrong.
The research questions identified for the study are –
RQ 1: How climate change is covered and reported in selected state editions of Hindi language newspapers?
RQ 2: What are the gaps existing in newsrooms of selected state editions of Hindi language newspapers in reference to reporting the issues of climate change?
RQ 3: How do the selected language newspapers validate and scrutinize the climate change information received from different sources and how they were covered and reported on a daily basis?
NWPGeographicScope: Regional
Indicators of achievement: Starting with the hypothesis that language journalism is mostly shaped by the community power dynamics and its influence, the study uses cross-sectional, descriptive, exploratory and qualitative methods to investigate how the stories of climate change are covered and reported in the selected state editions of Hindi language newspapers, what gaps exist in the newsrooms of these language newspapers, and how these selected newspapers validate and scrutinize the climate change information received from different sources. It further explores how the newspapers reflect and mediate issues related to the coverage of climate change in terms of frequency and placement.

NWPInformationType: Knowledge Resource
NWPJoinDate: 03/07/2024
NWPPartner: Central University of Himachal Pradesh
Purpose: The science of climate change and/or climate variability is a bit complex as various components of the Earth’s climate system are interacting with each other mostly in a non-linear manner involving positive/negative feedback processes (Boyce, 2009). To develop a basic understanding of the science behind climate change, a fundamental understanding of basic sciences (both natural and physical) is a prerequisite. Though global as well as national agencies like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are actively involved in raising the level of public awareness about climate change through their publications, their reach is limited to academicians and policymakers. In the mission of spreading climate awareness to the greater depths, mass-media organizations involving electronic (e.g. the National Geographic, the Discovery, the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Cable News Network etc.) as well as print media (e.g. the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Times of India, the Indian Express and the Hindu etc.) are playing a crucial role at global as well as national level. It is pertinent to mention here that the characteristics (form and magnitude) of climate change and its implications at the regional level are quite different over different parts of the world (Boykoff, 2011). Thus, the role of mass media organizations working on the regional or state level becomes crucial for disseminating awareness about climate change-related issues to the ultimate stakeholders.


In comparison to big newspapers with an established sophisticated newsroom and trained journalists, the coverage of climate stories is noticeable in state editions of language newspapers, even though the profile of these stories has never been higher. In a hill state like Himachal Pradesh, the public understanding of the subject is low and journalists are no exception as they come from the same community with limited exposure to the issue. The reflection of this can be seen in the stories published in the state editions of Hindi newspapers. The opinions and views presented in these stories are mostly outdated, driven by spin or simply wrong.


In state editions of Hindi language newspapers published from Himachal Pradesh, stories about climatic hazards/disasters reflected in terms of extreme temperature and extreme precipitation events are often written without a brief introduction that covers what, why and how the type of questions about a particular issue like chill or heat waves, cloud burst and flash-floods etc. Moreover, issues such as implications of climate change viz. loss of biodiversity, shift in vegetation, migration of species, loss of food security, and increase of insects/vector-borne diseases etc. hardly get any space. Many times, disastrous events like earthquakes or flash floods are covered just like a simple science/environment story. Most of the journalists working in these state editions of Hindi newspapers are graduates of arts or social sciences and are unwilling or unable to have a better understanding of science. Since, climate change nowadays encompasses the economy, health, security and more, the subject is extremely complex and easy to get wrong. The foremost challenge in covering climate change stories is the requirement for a strong grasp of the fundamentals of the climate debate. This grasp is often lacking and this has contributed to stories out of facts and false balance. The coverage of a recent event – a flash flood-like situation in Dharamshala covered by the state editions of Hindi newspapers was woefully inadequate (Nisbet, 2010). Nearly all the state editions termed the situation as a cloud-burst quoting state sources instead of consulting with qualified scientists which brought chaos and created panic among the state community. The story was quickly picked up by many national TV channels and newspapers, and the visuals of the incident quickly circulated on social media. This is one of the many examples of journalistic balance gone wrong.


The research questions identified for the study are –


RQ 1: How climate change is covered and reported in selected state editions of Hindi language newspapers?


RQ 2: What are the gaps existing in newsrooms of selected state editions of Hindi language newspapers in reference to reporting the issues of climate change?


RQ 3: How do the selected language newspapers validate and scrutinize the climate change information received from different sources and how they were covered and reported on a daily basis?

Regional group:
Target group: Academics and scientists; Communities; Policy makers
NWPWorkStream: NWP
NWPYear:
NWPOutcome:
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Implementing partners: Central University of Himachal Pradesh, India
NWPYearPublication: 2022
NWPUpdate:
SourceItemID: 2583
NWPSecendaryEmail: nairdevcom@yahoo.co.in
NWPPrimaryEmail: nairdevcom@hpcu.ac.in
NWPTypeOfKnowledge: Scientific/peer reviewed publication
NWPCountryItem: India
NWPRelevantWeblinks: https://jdc.journals.unisel.edu.my/index.php/jdc/article/view/231;#The study looks into the existing gaps in the newsrooms of the selected editions of the Hindi-language newspapers reporting on the issues of climate change. It analyzes how climate change stories especially landslide news are covered and reported and are prioritized in daily reporting assignments. It used cross-sectional, descriptive, exploratory and qualitative methods. The primary data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with the working journalists and editorial staff of the selected newspapers. The study approached content analysis to extract themes in the reportage of issues where the newspapers played a crucial role in developing people’s perception of climate change by using their considerable public trust to build acceptance through small narratives. It was observed that the connection between climate change and the local event is seldom made in climate reportage. Although the damage caused was reported extensively, there is little introspection by the newspapers as to the reasons for such catastrophic events. The study finds that there is little to no connection is made to the significance of anthropogenic factors in causing the disaster in all the observed news stories. The attribution to climate change appears mostly in the form of vague throwaway statements or brief quotes from experts.

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