Beating the climate news fatigue with solutions journalism

Desciption

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is struggling to meet growing water demand, especially for agriculture as it is the larger user of water. The war in Ukraine has only exacerbated the situation impacting especially food security with an unprecedented increase in food prices in the region.

In parallel, the media sector is facing another crisis: news fatigue, a trend that has been increasing across the world during the last few years. Climate change is one of the more difficult news topics to cover and which engages fewer readers in the long term. As the Reuters Institute’s report highlights, “a central challenge is how to cover the issue in a way that draws attention to the causes and decisions that lead to disasters, not ‘just’ the disasters themselves”.

The Mediterranean entrepreneurs Laura Tabet and Faris Farras will highlight in this session the main challenges the region is currently facing focusing on water scarcity. They will also share the successful local solutions they are working on. The session will focus on the solutions journalism approach as a methodology that can engage audiences worn out from negative news in the longer term. We want to show journalists how to find great climate stories in their own backyards!