A Healthy Blueprint

Global Witness hosted Media Balance on a One-Sided Climate Crisis to discuss the growing tension to maintain balanced reporting on the climate crisis amidst the rise of financial pressure and disinformation efforts from bad actors. We heard from Evelyn Acham of Agape Earth Coalition, Yessenia Funes of Atmos Magazine, and Marcel Gomes of Repórter Brasil.

Lots of great advice in this conversation moderated by Gabrielle Darbyshire of Dangerous Ventures:
1. Some topics can be tough to report on, such as climate migration; reporters should be mindful to honor migrant stories and avoid sensationalism
2. Newsrooms and media outlets are lagging behind when it comes to harnessing the power of social media; as Yessenia put it “the disinformation machine is so powerful on social media and WhatsApp”, and the media can play a significant role investing their time putting factual content onto these platforms to combat bad actors 🥊
3. On the flip side, Evelyn hopes that when important climate stories ARE shared by the communities impacted, media stakeholders will help amplify them through their platforms 📢
4. Marcel described how legislation that mandates digitizing data has been instrumental in reporting the facts, especially when investigating companies and their climate impacts 🔍 📊