As climate-related challenges escalate across the globe, climate journalism is not for the faint-hearted; but support is at hand thanks to the Oxford Climate Journalism Network.

Few themes cross-cut our news feeds today like the subject of climate: from weather and politics to fast fashion and cooling solutions, it is a constant. Climate experts continue to identify new phenomena, seek solutions to unprecedented challenges, and predict the impact on humankind. Organisations and governments are scrambling to respond with complex, evolving policies. Journalists, then, have the unenviable task of navigating this uncharted territory – a sea of information and a range of often conflicting viewpoints – in their endeavours to convey basic facts and what they mean for their audiences.

Mitali Mukherjee, Director of Journalist Programmes at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, leads the Oxford Climate Journalism Network (OCJN). ‘Our key goal is to empower the people with whom we're working and provide the space to make journalists feel more confident about their work,’ she says. ‘We have the strength and position to do that. We also want to be the nodal point where newsroom leaders talk to us about what their challenges are.

The network’s goals cut across leadership and editorial work but its commitment to creating lasting change requires significant financial resources. ‘Securing long-term funding for the network has been crucial. Laudes Foundation is a huge ally,’ she says, ‘and their multi-year philanthropic support has been vital for our running and existence. We are keen to build our work with newsroom leaders across the world as we believe leadership is critical for ensuring climate is part of every news aspect in a news organisation. We are also looking at broadening our research around climate and audiences and exploring additional climate intersections.’

A network with global reach

The OCJN accepts 200 journalists per year (split across two cohorts per year) from across the world. The network exists online only to make it as accessible and democratic as possible, resulting in a broad and varied group. So far, more than 120 countries and more than 56 languages have been represented, which includes news editors – the managing editor of France 24 among them – and independent journalists.

‘We ensure that at least 60% of the network comes from the Global South – on that we've been really clear,’ says Mukherjee. ‘We have also built something called the Global South Climate Database in partnership with Carbon Brief. You can self-nominate to be on that list of experts, so, all a journalist has to do is go into that database and they can find someone who speaks to a local problem, perhaps in a local language, and has lived experience of it.’

I would really love to set up a map and start showing these little pings from wherever people are joining the network because it's so incredible how diverse and international it is Mitali Mukherjee

Solutions-led journalism

Another key pillar of the OCJN is research – not just about climate, but about climate and audiences, for example exploring how audiences engage with climate news, what they want to see, and who they trust. So far this work is taking place across eight countries, including the USA, UK, Pakistan, India and Brazil.

‘When we began exploring the idea of a climate network, there was definitely interest in covering climate but there was also a lack of access to information, a lack of understanding and a lack of confidence,’ says Mukherjee. One clear finding was that audiences were tired of hearing bad news. In direct response, the OCJN supports its journalists by working with them on ‘solutions journalism’, where a particular problem is presented alongside a community-led solution. ‘Audiences do believe that bringing these stories out can create change. I think that's important,’ she says.

OCJN research demonstrates that younger audiences are the most engaged with climate journalism and recognise its value. With temperatures in South East Asia at an all-time high, for instance, people want to know how to keep themselves safe in the heat. ‘But, also, how are we protecting journalists who are out reporting in this sort of heat?’ asks Mukherjee. ‘How are newsrooms prepared for extreme weather events, which have become more frequent over the last few years? And, most importantly, where is the accountability?’

One thing the OCJN strives not to do is teach. ‘They're all outstanding journalists. They know how to do their job,’ says Mukherjee. ‘What they don't have is access to tools. And we're here to support them with that.’

Creating newsroom change

The OCJN also consciously works with smaller groups of eight to ten newsroom leaders to discuss how to better prepare their newsrooms to report on climate, and what sort of changes they could make to start integrating it in their news coverage. There is certainly no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution: newsrooms have different pressures and budgetary resources across countries and continents. For Mukherjee, the key is to make decisions that work best for them on an individual newsroom level, with the caveat that measures will only work if everyone is committed to them.

Addressing specific localised issues

A fourth and final pillar of the OCJN is that it offers two annual fellowships for outstanding mid-career journalists to come to Oxford for a period of six months and work on projects relating to climate change that are significant to them. Recent fellowships have been held by Samuel from Nigeria and Phillippe from Brazil. Samuel focused on the farmer herder crisis – a major issue across the African continent. Phillippe looked at ‘shifting baseline syndrome’ – a gradual change in our accepted norms and expectations for the environment across generations. His work focused on newsrooms and how a situation, such as an increasingly hotter climate, becomes accepted as ‘normal’. ‘It isn't and it shouldn't be,’ says Mukherjee.

The impact of the fellowships can be far-reaching. ‘There are journalists who've gone back to Ghana and said: let's start our own network and support each other,’ she continues. ‘A journalist from India who was a fellow has gone back to build a huge model for solutions journalism and women farmers, where they're sharing information with each other to empower but also protect themselves from climate change. This is so powerful.’

Mental health

Mukherjee is at pains to emphasise the huge mental health implications of climate journalism, and the amount of accompanying ‘baggage’. Major sources of concern span everything from reporting on elections to personal safety in the face of unprecedented weather events. The different intersections at play, from climate and race to climate and gender – across the world, women are disproportionately affected by climate change – also add to the level of responsibility weighing on reporters.

Additionally, in many parts of the world, climate is an investigative topic where tracking the sand mafia or how low-quality coal is being shilled, sold and constantly mined can mean straying into dangerous territory. ‘The mental health implications are real,’ says Mukherjee. ‘This work comes with a lot of collateral damage, whether it’s threats from people in positions of power or legal threats. So, we're trying to support journalists with those elements as well, which are critical.’

‘There is a level of frustration at the slow pace of change,’ says Mukherjee. ‘We actually do an entire module on mental health where the ultimate outcome for the journalist is: climate change will continue to happen even if you're on your day off. That's the unfortunate truth. You need time to rest and recoup and come back stronger. It's not on your shoulders.’