Climate Change Denial and the Media

Theodore Dawes is a writer and reporter from Alabama, he uses examples from the frustration of the people in view of the media, and but brings a better understanding to the process that reporter and editors have to go though in creating a story. He states that objectivity has no existence in news reporting, but journalists still provide the truth that it does exist. Reporters have only so much face time to provide a segment, how can they possibly provide multiple sides of a story and not expect to get all of the facts. Editors and reporter have to make difficult decisions including, the morality of the story and what facts they can possibly leave out. Even though it seems the media is only trying to persuade and pick sides in a story, this

Objective journalism in the United States should be reconsidered to accommodate the demands of varied audiences and increased media outlets. With the media growing in magnitude and influence, many people are looking for fresh, like-minded news sources. Declines in newspaper readership and television news viewing among many Americans suggests that objectively reported news is a failing philosophy. Younger, more impressionable people may be ready for the advantages of the partisan news reporting style.

In the article, “The End of Objectivity?”. Justin Raimondo, an American author and the editorial director of a popular antiwar website, describes his dislike for his local newspaper because of the bias toward conservative views. (Raimondo) The creator of the newspaper in this case could be more open minded by including more liberal views in the newspaper in order to gather a more diverse audience. However, the author could take the information he gathered from the newspaper and use it as knowledge to strengthen his political

The second part to the forth part (p.153-158) separately discusses three periods of American journalism: colonial period, the early 19 century, the late 19century and the early 20 century. In these three periods, objective was emerged in different form. Such as the business neutrality in colonial American journalism, the stenographic fairness phenomena in 19th century American journalism and occupational journalism culture in the late 19th century and early 20th century. These phenomenons are more or less belonging to objective practice. They can be regard as the objective soil of American journalism. However, these objective practices still did not develop into the objective norm. After such long period development, the American journalism stepping into fact-centered and news-centered era, but it does not develop the objective norm. American journalists gradually identify themselves as an occupational group.

A great deal of interest of the countless allegations of bias has been a heated topic today in the dominant media. A variety of watchdog groups have generated over the years to attempt to find the facts behind bias facts, accuracy, fairness and balance. It is extremely important in journalism to always be accurate, fair, and have a consistent balance. If an editor falls into the biases and does not not follow the previous three essential qualities stated, one may get himself or herself into serious legal trouble and/or possibly let go from his or her job.

The press is dishonest due to East Coast Bias and lack of objectivity and diversity. Cunningham discusses that, though one out of eight people live in California, most of our news are produced in New York since New York Times’ headquarters, the most influential newspaper, are found. He points out that New York’s values differ from the values of the rest of the country. This creates a dishonest representation of the diverse perspectives in United States. Moreover, compared to past years goals, there is still a lack of racial diversity. Furthermore, female journalists find it difficult to move status due to the glass ceiling. In Four Theories of the Press, the authors argue that the press is controlled by only one socioeconomic class--the business class. As Agnew mentioned, there is censorship when only a few people decide what are news for million of Americans (70)--and censorship results in dishonest half-truths.

Mark Pedelty, who wrote War Stories: The Culture of Foreign Correspondents, explains in a chapter entitled “Objective Journalism” of the ways in which American correspondents are taught to report. Reports in newsmagazines in America are much different from everywhere else in the world. For America “objectivity remains the standard by which journalists are judged,” and this means journalists strive to obtain balance and fairness (Pedelty 171). Pedelty argues that objectivity is a utopian goal which is impossible to obtain, and secondly, objectivity and balance are two things that should not play a role in the reporting a journalist does. In countries all over the world newspapers and magazines are based on political lines and are biased in favor of their own viewpoints and agendas. Pedelty claims that these types of journalists, who report according to their own view points, in fact produce better reports that those Americans who strive for objectivity

Gallucci accurately labels Rose’s article as the “widely refuted Daily Mail article” (Gallucci 1). She even labels David Rose as a false journalist by highlighting a false climate science coverage and Iraqi weaponry claims (1). Gallucci backs up her labels by using twitter post from Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at U.C Berkeley and Gavin A. Schmidt, the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (2). She also uses a blog post from Victor Vienna, a German scientist with the World Meteorological Organization (5). Lastly, she uses a penned rebuttal in a newspaper article by Peter Thorne, an Irish climate scientist, who worked on the NOAA study (5). Rose also uses bias by labeling by presenting Dr. John Bate’s evidence as “irrefutable”, instead of as unverified, as correctly mentioned in Gallucci’s article (Rose 1). He also quickly links the 2015 NOAA study to the infamous 2009 “Climategate” scandal, in which scientists manipulated data before the UN summit (2). In fact, Rose renames the NOAA climate change study to “Climategate 2.0” (3). Rose’s limited sources include an interview John Bates, a study conducted by John Bates by himself, and quotes from Professor Curry from Georgia Institute of Technology (1). Gallucci’s sources are a diverse set of scientists, who can accurately speak to the issue of climate

In view of this, I hypothesize that the Herald will use tactics in order to increase readership and prevent readers from having to wrestle with new concepts on the subject of climate change. Boykoff and Smith would be critical of the Calgary Herald and criticize it for presenting climate change as an “evenly balanced debate between apparently expert groups who were ‘‘believers’’ or ‘‘deniers’’’ (Boykoff and Smith, 2010, p. 5) I intend on speaking at length in my MRP about the ramifications that arise when equal weight is given to scientific facts that are by facts and alternative facts that are generated by emotion. Will Potter in Green Is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege (2011, p.133) strengthens Boykoff and Smith’s arguments by declaring that balancing false impressions has taken precedence over critical, investigative reporting that speaks truth to power (Potter 2011, p.133). A similar approach is taken in Erik Kojola’s writing’s on the political economy of the news industry that are informed by Potter’s claims. Kojola looks at how truth is being compromised by corporate consolidation, profit demands, and political biases that are shaped by the ideological position of newspaper owners and editors (2015, p.7). It is useful to draw upon Freudenburg (2005) who theorizes about ‘privileged accounts’ that are given precedence in the media and in doing so, produce conflictual binaries and recreate dominant

The technological advances that are occurring just within the 21st century has given scientists resources to collect overwhelmingly accurate evidence showing global climate change is occurring. This has led to an ongoing and problematic controversial debate whether climate change is real or a hoax. The environmental issues that are taking place due to the effects of climate change are large, the solutions to these problems will vastly change human’s lifestyles and be costly. Climate change denial is supported due to politics, the fear of losing jobs in coal and agricultural occupations, and the control corporations have over

As Bill Nye so aptly stated it, “Climate change is happening, humans are causing it, and I think this is perhaps the most serious environmental issue facing us.” Though there is much debate on the topic, climate change is a serious issue that needs the backing of powerful figures to help resolve it.

Climate change has been a pertinent issue in the media as of the past decade. With much debate on its severity, some simply believe that it is the result of alternating weather patterns. Meanwhile, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claims that global warming “has been driven by human activity,” continuing on to say that its existence is “unequivocal” (sciencemag). As most scientific research suggests, it is evident that climate change is negatively affecting the planet through global warming due to a diminishing Ozone layer, rising sea levels as a result of thermal expansion and melting polar ice caps, and a declining quality of life for humans and animals caused by

“Global Warming is not a conqueror to kneel before - but a challenge to rise to. A challenge we must rise to.” (Lieberman) Every one of the past 38 years has been warmer than the 20th century average because of a dramatic rise in carbon dioxide emissions. We as a society must understand that Global Climate Change is happening and we cannot ignore it. Preventing Global Climate Change is definitely a costly road, but it is necessary to keep the world from falling to pieces. Melting glaciers, rising sea levels, heat waves and flooding are all examples of the outcome of Global Climate Change; any of these examples could thoroughly destroy a city. By altering our weather, health, and economy, Global Climate Change has affected life as we know it today, and it is vital that humans take action by reducing emissions, halting deforestation, fighting misinformation, and preparing for impacts.

"Journalism”, says Artz, Mace, and Cloud, demonstrates how norms and practices meet the needs and values of social formation (…). The construction of 'objectivity' (...) conform(s) seemessly to the time and space requirements of the business cycle, advertising requirements, and corporate profits drives (…).This (…) is the efficient implementation of a shared interest in a social system for the production of life based on private profit from wage labor, by administering political decisions and cultural practices that will reproduce existing social relations and norms" (Artz, Macek, & Cloud, 2006: p. 38-39).

Media comes in many different forms, social media, news print media (magazines and newspaper) and television media, these are a few sources people use for information. This paper will be addressing the responsibility of traditional media sources such as television news shows and print media. My reasoning is these two outlets present themselves as being informative and based on facts, rather than opinions, however, it is becoming more frequent that the information being presented just the opposite, too much opinion and not enough fact. “When releasing the news about 95% of new information came from "traditional media,” (Journalism & Media Staff, 2010). People who used to rely on factual information are beginning to have a hard time differentiating one from the other. The media is responsible for what information is released and how it will be perceived. With technology on the rise we are no longer stuck with getting our information from radio stations and television, we are now able to use the internet and social media platforms as a source to receive and obtain information.