Climate Narratives: Empowering Voices for a Sustainable Future.

How a pan-European training programme is supporting scientists, journalists and content creators to reach younger audiences with their climate stories.

As heat records continue to be broken across Europe, hard-hitting, impactful climate and environmental journalism has never been more sorely needed. The European Journalism Centre (EJC) thus identified that investigating these topics and discussing potential solutions for environmental issues is a crucial public service, especially given the role played by the media in shaping the discourse around the climate crisis. 

However, the way Europeans are getting their news is also changing. More than a third (34%) of 15-24-year-olds in the EU follow news primarily on YouTube or other video platforms, compared to only 8% of people aged 55+, according to the Eurobarometer Media & News Survey 2022. With young people rapidly migrating from traditional print, broadcast, and digital to social and streaming platforms, independent journalists and freelancers need to keep up if they want to reach audiences where they are. Additionally, as climate science evolves, journalists must navigate interdisciplinary research and solutions-oriented approaches to communicate compelling stories to diverse audiences. EJC strongly believes that interdisciplinary collaboration between climate scientists,journalists and content creators is a stronger approach to respond to this critical global issue and counter news fatigue simultaneously.

To achieve this, in 2023, the EJC partnered with YouTube to develop an in-person training program that explored the vibrant intersection between journalism and climate science. For this, 21 video-first news creators, climate scientists, and journalists across Europe were mentored by EJC and experts from Deutsche Welle, Vice News, and YouTube. The main objective was to equip the participants with tools and knowledge to:

• Debunk misinformation around climate change.
• Develop creative storytelling formats to simplify complex climate stories.
• Identify sustainable revenue models for their YouTube channels.
• Navigate the platform’s algorithms to counter filter bubbles.
• Collaborate with each other (journalists and non-journalists).

As a result:

• UK-Based climate scientist Ella Gilbert recorded a 7.5% increase in the "Click Through Rate" on her videos after updating her thumbnails. Her content focuses on debunking climate fake news.
• Dr. Adam Levy, a doctor in atmospheric physics at the University of Oxford, who runs the YouTube channel “Climate Adam,” collaborated with Germany-based “Migration Matters.” Together they produced a 10-minute-long video explaining climate migration across the globe. The video currently has over 23K views!
• PhD scholar and freelance video presenter Roshan Salgado, who runs the YouTube channel “All About Climate,” also shared inputs from his research that focuses on communicating climate change in modern media. The bootcamp helped him transform his climate change facts into a compelling newsworthy script.

This bootcamp contributes towards EJC’s larger vision to foster a resilient digital news ecosystem in Europe, in which trustworthy climate content stands out and is trusted over disinformation.