Radhika Mittal, a media sociologist and public discourse analyst associated with TERI, in her speech at the 3 day training program for young and aspiring vernacular journalists at Madurai Kamaraj University, urged the students to be more analytical rather than taking extreme standpoints.
“If the climate change issues get reported as a looming apocalypse, people may just feel that nothing could be done. It will be better if media focused on how climate change affects local communities and what can be done to mitigate the impact. For instance, a series of articles could have been done regarding the recent Chennai floods on the underlying urban planning issues. It is a complex story that needed to be told.”
- Issues such as the lack of dedicated journalists in the field of environmental science, and the scarcity of support from the media houses to such journalists were also touched upon.
Background:
- This training program, organized by the School of Linguistics and Communications (SLC), was conducted at the Madurai Kamaraj University, in collaboration with the Earth Journalism Network and Internews.
- About 50 journalists from various vernacular media participated in the conference.
News Item compiled by Almas Shaikh
Environment Law and Society Blog 