Climate change journalism in South Africa: noticeable improvements, less than adequate

Abstract

The media coverage of climate change in South Africa is on the increase, although several issue requiring attention have been identified. These include i) the fact that media coverage ismostly influenced by events such as climate conferences and disasters; ii) a tendency toapproach climate change as a beat, instead of incorporating it in other beats since the climatecrisis impacts various issues, such as economics, health, politics, food security, agriculture, etc.This has often resulted in a scenario where some of the impacts of climate change are underreported;iii) most of the reporting is found in online media and sometimes behind paywalls;and iv) although showing some improvements, there is a reliance on stories from foreign newsnetworks, something that might suggest that the climate crisis is not of local concern. Overallclimate communication by key stakeholders such as the government and the business sector isparticularly inadequate. Having conducted a mapping of media coverage by 11 publicationsand interviewed 42 key stakeholders, this study has made several recommendations whichinclude the training of climate journalists and the conscientization of media houses to improvereporting on the crisis. Government, in particular, has been implored to engage in climatechange communication to catapult societal discourse on the subject and improve mediareporting.