Encon Prize for Sustainable Development – Climate Journalism
We are delighted to introduce one of our three finalists – all young, enthusiastic and talented – for the Encon Sustainability Award! Gijs has made it through to the final thanks to his dissertation on ‘climate change reporting’!
Scroll down to read Gijs’s summary!
Objectivity in media coverage of climate change from a post-normality perspective: theory and practice
At both the individual and collective levels, 21st-century citizens face diverse and complex challenges linked to climate change. This study is based on the premise that climate science is a striking example of post-normality, where facts are uncertain, values are conflicting, the stakes are high and decisions are urgent. With this in mind, this study argues that journalism must evolve towards a form of post-normal journalism, in which it is recognised that facts are not neutral, that not all opinions deserve equal coverage, and that it is not desirable to avoid an interpretative approach. More specifically, this implies a new conceptualisation of the notion of ‘objectivity’.