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Featuring the CAU: The media's climate call to action
15 November 2022
An article on how climate change is discussed in the media and what kind of stories motivate people to act, written by Freya Roberts (Project Manager)
Freya Roberts reflects on the different ways climate change is portrayed in the media following several panel disccusions at the 2022 Net Zero Festival.
The article, published by Business Green on 10 November 2022, discussed how different types of storyline affect people's motivation to act, and how climate change is seeping into a range of programming.
Excerpts below:
Climate change is seeping into all sorts of content - from Sky Sports football coverage to the Great British Sewing Bee. As ITV's head of sustainability Jeremy Mathieu explained at the Net Zero Festival, one of the channel's success stories of 2022 was increasing viewers willingness to buy preloved clothes when eBay sponsored the broadcaster's hit show Love Island.
For decades now... stories told on TV and in the newspaper have helped make the public aware of the risks humanity faces [from climate change].
And while there is still a place for this content, it's not the only type of content the public needs to see... as Financial Times journalist Henry Mance neatly summed up: "You can't expect people to go and seek out stories of doom every day. We need to engage with people, with the struggles they are facing on climate change."