Media coverage is not matching up to the scale of the global threat to biodiversity, an international group has claimed. The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) says journalists need to learn more about the issues and explain them better.
As 190 nations met in Germany for the Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the IIED published a briefing paper on biodiversity and the media. It explains why biodiversity loss will become an increasingly important story and suggests ways for journalists and others to improve the way they tell the story.
KEY POINTS:
• Biodiversity is essential to human wellbeing but is under threat the world over. Yet media coverage does not match the scale of the problem, not least because the term ‘biodiversity’ is itself poorly understood.
• Journalists need to gear up to tell this story better by learning more about the issues and framing them in ways that make sense to their audiences.
• Researchers and policymakers must also do more to explain the importance of nature to people, using jargon-free language and examples that help make the issues real.
• Key to successful communication will be an ability to show that people are part of biodiversity, reliant on its richness and deeply affected by its loss.
• This will grow in importance in the coming years, as major international storylines unfold and climate change takes hold.
The paper can be discussed online by following this link.
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