Best Practices for Engaging Audiences on Climate Change
Climate change is the most pervasive issue of our time. Public opinions on the climate crisis have shifted slowly from “nonchalant” to “anxious” as extreme weather becomes more and more common. Scientists and journalists alike are sounding the alarm louder and louder. The consequences are already here, and we don’t yet fully know how far-reaching they will be.
Even though two-thirds of American citizens want the government to do more when confronting climate change, it remains a subject that is vastly misunderstood. With the sheer inundation of climate-related journalism, disinformation, and panic, the landscape surrounding the subject of climate is a tricky one to broach without turning some consumers off immediately.
Younger generations are more likely to be affected disproportionately by climate change. Worryingly, this does not appear to have ramped up their engagement with the subject. Young people consume news stories on climate change less frequently than their older counterparts, despite warnings that temperatures on earth could be unlivable by 2100.
So what are some things that draw readers to climate articles? For one, scientists. The public, and especially the American left, named scientists as the top source they were likely to trust, with politicians being one of the sources they were least likely to trust. This, interestingly, inverts on the American right, with politicians clinching the top spot for trusted climate information. Only 26 percent of Americans feel truly “indifferent” to the crisis as it begins to pervade daily life.
How else can journalists reach people with important climate information? Connection to community. Climate change will have far-reaching effects, but just how far reaching? Impoverished people will face the worse consequences; people living below the poverty line could see “health effects, food, water, and livelihood security [deterioration], migration and forced displacement, loss of cultural identity, and other related risks” in the near future if climate change is not actively and thoughtfully combatted.
Readers also hunger for some ideas about what is being done to combat climate change. As a largely existential and sometimes invisible threat, readers are knowledgeable about the possible consequences but very rarely any plans of action. Global climate policies can be found here, and journalists would do well to highlight some of the plans already in place while noting what more can be done.
Finally, it’s worth reporting who is going to be most affected by climate change. Lower income countries, communities of color, children, the elderly, people with preexisting health conditions, outdoor workers, and people with low income stand to suffer the most. Water is becoming more acidic, sea levels are rising, coral reefs are bleaching or being smothered by sediment. Truly every piece of earth is being affected negatively, and even if your readers themselves are less personally affected, being up to date on these devastating consequences is more likely to engage readers and activists.
Climate change is a broad and controversial topic that can prove overwhelming for readers. Paring down focus and really honing in on what the community needs to know and how climate will affect them directly will invigorate readers and get them engaged in the conversation. Journalists and scientists continue to be on the front lines of the fight against climate change, and swelling our ranks will be crucial to humanity’s very survival.
