Politics, economy and social issues are considered more important that environmental issues. This is because the public sees ecology as something related mostly to pollution and waste. However, ecology is not about waste, but about life on the Earth as the nature is the basis for economy and the existence of our society.
CABAR.asia Media School together with the experts of MoveGreen has prepared cards on how to qualitatively report about ecology on the media.
The urban environment is not only the quality of air, water, waste disposal issue or destruction of green spaces.
Look for new topics and new focuses of issue reporting. For example, cities have their own flora and fauna, whose changes can show how suitable the urban environment is for human habitation. Tell the readers about the living signs of a healthy city.
For example, you know that tap water that is supplied to urban residents’ apartments is examined every year by competent authorities.
Find out the parameters of examination other than turbidity and colour. Ask independent experts to tell what good quality water should not contain.
Smog is a relevant issue of almost all cities.
Find out what substances and in what volumes are contained in the air in your city. If the city has air monitoring stations, write every day about how air quality changes, how it affects the people’s health. Thus, you and your readers will have the real picture of the situation. Accordingly, you will have a reason for asking questions to specialists and the authorities – about why the situation does not change for the better and what to do about it.
Monitor social media because active residents always publish posts about their concerns. Such posts can be the starting point for your investigation.
Much is said now about separate collection of waste. In fact, there are no conditions for it. However, it does not mean that the issue of separate collection of waste should be neglected. Even when proper conditions appear, people will not learn to segregate waste at once.
In other words, start habituating residents to it now. Try to do it yourself and share your experience with the audience.
Safe storage and disposal of some solid domestic waste is a separate issue. It is important to tell the readers (viewers) why they should not put batteries in their general waste bin.
However, it would be even better if you make up an algorithm of what should be done with such waste and where they should be disposed of in your city.
For example, you can demonstrate the dynamics of changing area of the city dump or reduction of green spaces by means of Google Earth application. It can help show the scope of positive or negative changes.
Open sources, either user materials or databases, will add some facts to your material. However, make sure that you use true data. Use fact check in your work – don’t become creators or disseminators of fakes.
It’s not enough to tell about an issue and its consequences. Ask experts how to solve the issue and specify the solution in your material.
Title photo: shutterstock.com
This publication was produced as part of the mentorship programme under the Development of New Media and Digital Journalism in Central Asia project delivered by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) with support from the UK Government. It does not necessarily reflect the official views of IWPR or the UK Government
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