What A Dinosaur Can Teach The Media This Climate Week

ForbesWomen What A Dinosaur Can Teach The Media This Climate Week Joan Michelson Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I cover energy, climate, sustainability, & ESG and women’s careers Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Sep 19, 2022, 07:21am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Frankie, the dinosaur who “crashed” the UN General Assembly and warned them, “Don’t Choose Extinction,” is making new friends at the UN General Assembly and Climate Week festivities this week.

He’s hoping to convince them to stop subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and to address climate change more vigorously, and faster. (If you were not one of the 1. 8+ billion people who saw the ad, click the video above.

) Is the media listening? Climate change is no longer just a science story. Hurricanes, floods, wildfires, droughts, tornadoes…and more. Aerial view of homes submerged under flood waters from the North Fork of the Kentucky River in .

. . [+] Jackson, Kentucky, on July 28, 2022.

-(Photo by LEANDRO LOZADA/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images It’s a public health story: will you have drinking water, or a house left after the fires are extinguished or the hurricane leave. It’s an economic story: will you have a job after the business you worked at is devastated in the disaster, or moves their operations to someplace less at risk from climate-related disasters. Or, because climate change, on top of urban sprawl, is causing novel species to travel and risk infecting more people with previously unknown diseases and viruses like covid-19.

It’s a food supply story, as farmers lose crops, and as grains, beans and produce cannot get to the people who need them due to a range of supply chain disruptions. Yet, few meteorologists or weather reporters or other reporters covering extreme weather disasters, droughts, wildfires, floods and/or stories about the loss of crops or dangers of contaminated water, explain the connection of that catastrophe to climate change. MORE FOR YOU Spring Health Notches A $190 Million Series C At A $2 Billion Valuation, Making CEO April Koh The Youngest Woman To Run A Unicorn A Year After Unleashing War Crimes Against Indigenous Armenians, Azerbaijan’s Threats And Violations Continue The Secret To Being The Wildly Popular Mayor Of Miami? Surround Yourself With Amazing Latina Women Is the media responding to what the public wants (and doesn’t want)? In journalism school, we are trained that journalism is about giving people the information they need to make responsible decisions in their lives.

Just the facts. Yet, as we know, many so-called “news” outlets in 2022 are more geared toward driving a political message than delivering information people need. Screenshot – Northwestern study headline – July 22, 2022 – .

. . [+] https://news.

northwestern. edu/stories/2022/07/false-balance-reporting-climate-change-crisis/ https://news. northwestern.

edu/stories/2022/07/false-balance-reporting-climate-change-crisis/ Maybe that’s why only 30% of Americans expressed an interest in climate change news, the lowest percent of all global populations, according to a new Digital News 2022 report. Or, why “Only 26% of Americans trust news generally, a 3-point decrease,” also the lowest in the study’s sample. The Digital News Report is produced by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, based on polling conducted by YouGov for them, in collaboration with other academic institutions and sponsored by several news organizations and foundations across the globe.

A recent study by Northwestern University found that, “False balance in news coverage of climate change makes it harder to address the crisis. . (and that ) bothsidesism’ in journalism undermines science.

” Creative media can have an impact – for good or ill The media amplifies and drives messages, as we have seen with any of a range of issues, from the coverage of disasters, to the war in Ukraine, the attack at the Capitol on January 6 th , and the economy. It’s a choice that members of the media make every story (including this one). Kerry Bannigan speaking at the UN SDG Media Summit 9-9-2022 – photo by Joan Michelson (frame capture .

. . [+] from video by Michelson) Joan Michelson “The media created the story of fashion as ‘fast’ purchases,” for example, Kerry Bannigan said at the UN SDG Media Summit recently.

Bannigan is the president of the PVBLIC Foundation, which produced the Summit, and Founder of the Conscious Fashion Campaign and the Fashion Impact Fund. The UN SDG Media Summit was produced in collaboration with EarthX, UN Development Programme, and Broadcom. As Aislinn Derbez, actress and Founder and CEO of La Magia del Caos, said on a panel at the Summit that we can use a creative approach to get the climate message across.

Boaz Paldi, Chief Creative Officer, United Nations Development Programme – and one of the brains behind the “Don’t Choose Extinction” campaign – added that, “Even if we talk about a serious issue, we don’t need to talk about it seriously…. Don’t be afraid to be funny. ” The rest of the talented team behind “Don’t Choose Extinction” includes the executive producer Helen Trickey, Consultant Managing Partner & Chief Impact Officer of Conspiracy of Love consulting firm, and the creative agency, Activista , which Paldi said conceived the idea .

“We need to capture people’s imagination” Melissa Fleming, UN Under-Secretary-General of Global Communications. United Nations “For the first time ever, the world’s total human development has declined two years in a row,” Melissa Fleming, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications told the Summit. “It is clear that the Sustainable Development Goals are needed more than ever.

They are and remain our blueprint for a better world. ” She added that, “We have apocalyptic headlines…but the problem is people are turning away from the news. ” To motivate people to take action on climate change, to keep them engaged, “We need to show them there’s no problem without a solution.

We have to show them they can get a grip on hope rather than fear,” Fleming continued. “We need to capture people’s imagination. ” Joan Michelson hugging Frankie the dinosaur at the UN SDG Media Summit reception Joan Michelson Maybe a dinosaur “crashing” the UN General Assembly will capture their imagination.

“How we could leverage the power of media to really disrupt the narrative – and make sure that women were being put at the forefront. ” At an expo in Dubai recently, Fleming said the UN had a pavilion called “Mission Possible” focused on solutions to the UN SDGs and that it attracted 1. 2 million visitors.

She implored the journalists in the Summit room to add solutions to their reporting. The Summit also emphasized reaching women. “As women, we have the power to change this, because the majority of household purchases are made by women,” Alissa Baier-Lentz, Co-Founder and COO, Kintra Fibers said on the Conscious Fashion panel.

This panel is part of the Conscious Fashion Campaign, from the Fashion Impact Fund “in collaboration with the Public Foundation and the United Nations Office for Partnerships,“ Bannigan clarified. Screenshot – Conscious Fashion Campaign names on Nasdaq in Times Square Sept 2022 Conscious Fashion Campaign “The campaign really focuses on how we can amplify the work of women led sustainable fashion initiatives,” she added. Another part of their campaign is blazing the names of this year’s cohort of these women live on the huge Nasdaq sign in Times Square in New York City, which went live the evening of September 9 th .

“We really wanted to see how we could leverage the power of media to really disrupt the narrative and make sure that women were being put at the forefront. There is so much happening for sustainable solutions, systems and strategies. And so much of them are women-led,” Bannigan added.

We’ll see if the media is listening as the 2022 UN General Assembly and Climate Week begin. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn . Check out my website .

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