ISSUE

Winter 2020

How to Make Climate Coverage Personal, Relevant, and Urgent

The volume of climate change coverage has been on the uptick in recent years, and hardly a day goes by when climate change and its consequences aren’t in the headlines. However, it remains one of the most challenging—yet important—stories for the media to cover well, given the sheer complexity and magnitude of the problem. Nieman Reports takes a look at journalists and news organizations who are working in innovative ways to make climate coverage more personal, urgent, and engrossing.

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Articles

Audio Services for the Disabled Recalibrate as Local News Shrinks and Tech Advances
Journalist’s Trade

Audio Services for the Disabled Recalibrate as Local News Shrinks and Tech Advances

Listen to this article: https://niemanreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Sidebaraudio.mp3 The ever-increasing availability of podcasts, audiobooks, and narrated articles has made listening the preferred way for millions of Americans to get news and information. But people…
Gabe Bullard
February 24, 2020
Audio Articles are Helping News Outlets Gain Loyal Audiences
Features

Audio Articles are Helping News Outlets Gain Loyal Audiences

How Harvard Business Review, The New Yorker, and The Economist use audio to boost reach and retention
Gabe Bullard
February 24, 2020
Journalism Needs a Strategy to Bridge the Chasm Between the Now and the Next
From the Curator

Journalism Needs a Strategy to Bridge the Chasm Between the Now and the Next

In October 2010, I was having dinner with Paul Salopek, sorting through the news industry’s vanishing support for foreign reporting, his work. “I have an idea,” he said, and on…
Ann Marie Lipinski
February 19, 2020
Climate Coverage that Engages Audiences Without Overwhelming Them
Features

Climate Coverage that Engages Audiences Without Overwhelming Them

Bushfires in Australia. Disintegrating ice in Greenland and Antarctica. Devastating hurricanes in the Caribbean. Record-breaking temperatures around the world—again. Hardly a day goes by when climate change and its consequences…
Michael Blanding
February 13, 2020
How Independent Journalists in Latin America are Finding New Ways to Hold Power to Account
Features

How Independent Journalists in Latin America are Finding New Ways to Hold Power to Account

On a hot tropical morning last November, Carlos Fernando Chamorro peered out the airplane window and looked down on the familiar landscape of Nicaragua’s lakes and volcanoes. It had been nearly…
Tim Rogers
February 13, 2020
Amid a chilling political atmosphere, Turkey's new English-language news site covers what others won't
Niemans @ Work

Amid a chilling political atmosphere, Turkey’s new English-language news site covers what others won’t

The pain of a journalist whose work is thrown into a deep dark hole by government gatekeepers deployed in a newsroom is like no other pain on earth. You hit…
Cansu Çamlibel
February 3, 2020
From dodging cattle to booming tech, LA Times’ Richard Read covers Washington state's divided people
Niemans @ Work

From dodging cattle to booming tech, LA Times’ Richard Read covers Washington state’s divided people

During a roundup at the Diamond M Ranch the other day, I dodged a 1,000-pound Hereford and nearly landed on a cow pie.Hazards on assignment at the eastern Washington spread…
Richard Read
January 27, 2020
Covering Gun Violence Sounding Trauma-informed Journalism

What Could Trauma-Informed Journalism Look Like?

When I hear teachers or soldiers or ministers talk about what they do as a calling, I get it. Though the public may not believe it, journalists carry a similar…
Anne Godlasky
January 22, 2020
How rewriting history with a deepfake moon landing video could help spot misinformation
Niemans @ Work

How rewriting history with a deepfake moon landing video could help spot misinformation

The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon was coming up. During a brainstorming session at Lippmann House, journalists and artists were throwing around ideas for potential…
Francesca Panetta
January 17, 2020
Talking race in America and diversity in journalism with "Takeaway" host Tanzina Vega
Live @ Lippmann

Talking race in America and diversity in journalism with “Takeaway” host Tanzina Vega

Tanzina Vega grew up in public housing less than a mile from public radio station WNYC, home to “The Takeaway,” the nationally-syndicated weekday show she has hosted since 2018. “We…
January 2, 2020
Reporting the Climate Crisis through (Really) Slow Journalism
Journalist’s Trade

Reporting the Climate Crisis through (Really) Slow Journalism

We journalists pride ourselves on being good notetakers—astute documentarians—but earlier this year, out in the woods, I met an old man who puts all of us to shame.His name is…
John D. Sutter
October 28, 2019
Gina McCarthy’s Advice to Climate Journalists: “Talk about Solutions and Build Hope”
Journalist’s Trade

Gina McCarthy’s Advice to Climate Journalists: “Talk about Solutions and Build Hope”

Even when news was breaking about the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, climate change was generating 18 million interactions on social media—more than guns, immigration, and the economy. So, what…
Gina McCarthy
October 28, 2019
Five Tips for Better Coverage of the Climate Crisis
Journalist’s Trade

Five Tips for Better Coverage of the Climate Crisis

These are heady times for anyone scrutinizing climate change coverage. Take the volume of coverage, for example, which seems to be on a sharp upward trend this year. More than…
James Painter
October 28, 2019