Climate Change, the Journalists and the Engaged: Reflections from South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya

This paper explores the political dimension of mediated climate change communication and the role of climate journalists in it. While the increasing plurality of actors engaged in mediated ways of sensemaking around climate change is well documented, the role of journalists in facilitating engagement between actors is less clear, especially in Africa. Using an African relational framework (ARF) that emphasises inter-subjectivity and co-creative deliberation, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 journalists covering climate change in three African countries to gain insights into the political dimension of climate journalism. Results indicate that several interacting factors, clustered around the journalists' role orientation, norm application and work environment, influence how climate journalism is practised in these African settings. One of such interactions relates to how the journalists' disseminator role orientation, commitment to objectivity and authority-order norms, and resource deficits interact to orient the coverage of climate change in the cases towards elites and away from other subjectivities and place-based knowledge. Based on the insights from the relational media framework, the paper argues that climate journalism can benefit from a perspective grounded in the ability of people to commune with, rather than communicate to others.

Automated summary

This paper examines the political aspect of climate change communication through the media and the role of climate journalists. The study shows that the journalists' role orientation, norm application, and work environment have an impact on how climate journalism is practiced in African countries. For example, the journalists' commitment to objectivity and authority-order norms, combined with resource deficits, can lead to a biased coverage of climate change favoring elites over other perspectives and local knowledge. The paper argues that climate journalism should focus on facilitating dialogue and understanding among people, rather than simply conveying information.