Media silent on climate change - journalists

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Friday October 15, 2010 00:00

Telling a tale of 'the revenge of nature' against mass production and consumerism that caught the human race in pursuit of technological and economic gains, this war of economies against nature has complexities due to the complex nature of the issue and the many unanswered questions it leaves as far as mitigating its adverse effects is concerned.

The big question, should Africa pay for the sins of the industrialised world? Whether yes or no is provided to the question, it is a fact that Africa is and shall continue to feel the heavy effects of global warming and climate change. Water bodies are drying. Irregular climate patterns which have led to either too much downpours or dry sessions are already being experienced here in Africa.

A recent Climate Change Coverage Workshop in Zambia, attended by about 20 reporters from the two countries, has shown that lack of impact in the climate change story is borne from lack of in-depth knowledge on the subject, and insufficient localisation of the issue. Brina Manenga, from The Post newspaper in Zambia said one of the major challenges faced by the regional media is lack of adequate information on the issue of climate change. Though a few of the 20 training programme attendants specialise in environmental reporting, Manenga said there is an urgent need for African media to have trained and qualified environmental journalists who can better communicate the science it entails. 

'This training is part of that and for one to effectively and achieve purposive reporting of a subject matter there is in need of a significant level of understanding,' she said.  Another setback, Manenga pointed out, is the tendency to tell the adverse effects of climate change through Western experiences or incidents on other continents. She emphasised the need to bring the story closer to home through the use of local examples, instead of over communicating the hurricanes and the typhoons occurring in other parts of the world. 'Not that the African media should not inform its reading population on international effects of the phenomenon, but let us make our local audience see that they are also at stake,' she said.

Justice Kavahematui from Botswana Guardian and The Midweek Sun concurs with Manenga on inadequate knowledge in the science of climate change. He said the subject is scientific such that it requires a high level of understanding in order to communicate the scientific background to some stakeholders, especially illiterate farmers.

'Breaking the scientific jargon down and simplifying it to all sections of the reading population requires intensive knowledge,' he said.

Furthermore, he pointed to lack of specialised reporting as a challenge to journalism whose main objective is to deliver information bringing about insightful public debates and advocacy.

He also added that lack of linkages of some of the incidents that happen in the environment, like the recent floods in the Okavango, to the larger context of climate change makes the public think climate change is not a huge issue and there is no need to worry about it.

'If we could link this to the issue, with factual evidence of course, like the Western media does, the public would feel the closeness of the matter,' he said.  Chamilesu Kapaipi of The Big Issue magazine in Zambia said the African media is failing to elicit interest and engage its audience when reporting on climate change. Kapaipi said the news content presented sounds the same throughout, which results in the audience losing interest as there is nothing new contained.

'We have to come up with new approaches and angles,' she said.

She added that the media also needs to initiate instead of being event oriented, and emphasised the importance of pre reportage. For instance, as COP16 -16th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for Mexico, this December- approaches African journalists should be asking their COP16 delegation what their negotiation stands for are as far as ensuring that the industrialised world commit to green developmental mechanism aimed at reducing the carbon saturation and other essential mitigation and adaptation measures are.

'It is a threat to the world, a major problem to us the developing nations; though Africa has emitted the least of greenhouses gases,' she said. The general consensus after the workshop was that the training has instilled a better understanding and approaches for generating fresher angles that could impact positively in advocating for mitigation.