The Paradoxes of Climate Change Reporting: A study of landslide news stories published in Hindi language newspapers of Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

The study looks into the existing gaps in the newsrooms of the selected editions of the Hindi language newspapers reporting on the issues of climate change. It analyzes how climate change stories especially landslide news are covered and reported and are prioritized in daily reporting assignments. It used cross-sectional, descriptive, exploratory and qualitative methods. The primary data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with the working journalists and editorial staff of the selected newspapers. The study approached content analysis to extract themes in the reportage of issues where the newspapers played a crucial role in developing people’s perception about climate change by using their considerable public trust to build acceptance through small narratives. It was observed that the connection between climate change and the local event is seldom made in climate reportage. Although, the damage caused was reported extensively, there is little introspection by the newspapers as to the reasons for such catastrophic events. The study finds that there is little to no connection is made to the significance of anthropogenic factors in causing the disaster in all the observed news stories. The attribution to climate change appears mostly in the form of vague throwaway statements or brief quotes from the experts.