TUESDAY 28 JUNE 2022

In this newsletter you'll find a chart and a podcast episode on one of the chapters of this year's Digital News Report. You'll also find a summary of our New York launch event, videos of the events we did in London, Asia and India, and links to join our events on Africa and Latin America. 
 

🕒 This newsletter is 1,400 words, an 11-minute read. If you don't receive it yet, join our mailing list here. If you want to receive our daily roundup with readings on journalism, join our Telegram channel here.
 

Explore Digital News Report 2022 here | Check out data from your country | Download a PDF version | Explore our interactive

The topic. One of the chapters of this year's Digital News Report explores audience attitudes and behaviours as they relate to climate change news. The chapter, authored by Craig T. Robertson, is based on survey data and follows on from our examination of the topic in 2020.

🌎 Interest in climate. Our survey data shows that those who are more interested in climate change news tend to have higher levels of income and education. Perhaps surprisingly, they also tend to be older. Our data show that interest in climate news is highest in Latin America, Southern Europe and Asia-Pacific, with over half of respondents in Greece (53%), Chile (52%) and the Philippines (52%) saying they are interested in news about climate change. Interest is lower in Northern Europe and the US.

🌱Sources of climate news. Overall, across the markets we cover, more people say they pay attention to documentaries (39%) than to major news organisations (33%) for information about this topic. This is the case across all markets in the aggregate, as well as across age groups.

🥀 Taking a position. Younger people are more likely to think news outlets should take a clear position in favour of climate change action. Across all markets, 43% of those aged 18–24 think this, compared to just 34% of people over 55. As the chart shows, those over 55 instead favour news outlets taking an impartial position and reflecting a wide range of views on the issue.  

🥀 Country differences. Audiences in Latin America, Southern Europe and several markets in Asia-Pacific are more open to news outlets taking a stand in favour of climate change action. Percentages are especially high in Chile (58%), Portugal (48%) and the Philippines (42%). On the other hand, pluralities still favour impartiality in places in Germany (45%), Norway (44%) and the US (42%).

"We can see in our data just the sheer number of people, particularly on the political right, who say they don’t pay attention to any sources for climate change. This is the case in the US and Australia, but not in places like Chile or Portugal"

Craig T. Robertson
Co-author of the report
Audio and transcript here
Listen on: Spotify | Apple | Google

🔗 Read the executive summary of the report. | By Nic Newman
🇺🇦 Media coverage of Ukraine. | By Kirsten Eddy and Richard Fletcher 
🤬 Have news audiences become more polarised? | By Richard Fletcher
👩‍🎓 How young people get their news. | By Kirsten Eddy
📬 The role of email news. | By Nic Newman
🌪 How people get their climate news. | By Craig T. Robertson 
🕺🏻 Which journalists people pay most attention to and why. | By Craig T. Robertson and Nic Newman

🇪🇸 Read the report in Spanish
📈 Explore data from your country. Figures from 46 markets
📄 Download the PDF version and read it on your tablet 
📊 Check out our interactive. Explore our data and build your own charts
👩‍🔬 Learn about our methodology. How we produce the report

🎙 Listen to our podcast series on the report 
🎥 Watch a video summary. Explore the key findings in 2 minutes
👩🏾‍💻 Explore the report in 232 slides. A presentation to use in your class

📍 Our New York launch. “We are increasingly being more transparent about what we do," said Monica Drake, Assistant Managing Editor of the New York Times, at the New York launch of this year's Digital New Report. She was part of an all-female panel discussion chaired by our Director Rasmus Nielsen, featuring Olivia Ma from the Google News Initiative, Arlyn Gajilan from Reuters and Melissa Bell from Vox Media. | Summary and video of the event

📺 Watch our other launch events: 🇬🇧 Global: Wednesday 15 June. Summary and video | 🌏 Asia: Thursday 23 June. Watch now | 🇮🇳 India: Monday 13 June. Watch now

👩🏾‍💻 Join our next online events: 

🌎 Latin America in partnership with Fundación Gabo: Presentation by our Director Rasmus Nielsen followed by a panel discussion in Spanish with Eduardo Suárez, Luz Mely Reyes, Patrícia Campos Mello and Juanita León. Today. 16:00 UK time. | Sign up now 

🌍 Africa in partnership with Jamlab: Presentation by Nic Newman, Chris Roper and Tolulope Adeyemo followed by a panel discussion with Tshepo Tshabalala, Khadija Patel, Motunrayo Alaka and Allan Olingo. Wednesday 29 June. 11:00 UK time. | Sign up now

💸 American news start-up Semafor has raised $25 million from wealthy investors. | 💰The Economist's parent company said its adjusted operating profit for 2022 was up 11% to £46.4m, its best figure since 2016. | 🎖️Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctioned off his Nobel peace prize medal for a record $103.5m, money that will go to Ukrainian child refugees. |🚗 A Bosnian journalist’s car has been destroyed by fire, with the prosecutor’s office investigating the incident on suspicion of arson. 

🕯️Investigating a death. After an investigation on the ground, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have concluded that Ukrainian photojournalist Maks Levin was likely executed by Russian soldiers, along with Ukrainian soldier Oleksiy Chernyshov, the friend accompanying him. “Analysis of the photos of the crime scene and the material evidence recovered clearly point to an execution that may have been preceded by interrogation or even acts of torture,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. | RSF

• Maks Levin went missing on 13 March while documenting hostilities near the village of Huta-Mezhyhirska in the Kyiv region and was found dead on 1 April. To read more about him and the other journalists we lost in Ukraine, read our piece about their lives and work. | Read the piece

🇭🇰 The aftermath of a media crackdown. Former news editor Norman Choi shares an insight into his life a year after Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, the outlet he worked at, was closed down. “Although Hong Kong is still beautiful, it is too quiet. Even though I have not left to start a new life elsewhere, I am an alien in a strange city,” he writes. | The Guardian

🇮🇳 A journalist silenced in India. On Sunday 26 June Twitter blocked access to various tweets in India, including one from Rana Ayyub. She tweeted a screenshot of an email from the company saying it was complying with the country’s Information Technology Act. While the tweet is not available to view within India, it is still accessible to Twitter users around the world. | The Wire

• The arrest of Mohammad Zubair, co-founder of fact-checking site Alt News, "marks another low for press freedom in India," says the Committee to Protect Journalists. Zubair, who has been targeted multiple times for his work, was detained in connection with a tweet about the renaming of a hotel. | CPJ

💩 Newspaper 'finsta'. The Los Angeles Times has begun a new social media project aiming to appeal to young people through memes and internet culture, named ‘The 404’. The team set up a ‘burner account’ on Instagram and TikTok, separately from the paper’s official social media channels mimicking 'finstas', fake Instagram accounts used by teens and young adults to document more real, candid moments.

• Why now? “The 404 has been tasked with 'continually inventing new types of experimental content' in hopes of reaching younger, more diverse audiences who are not already reading or engaging with the L.A. Times,” Sarah Scire writes. | NiemanLab

🗞️ A swift disappearance. After an article containing allegations about Boris Johnson vanished from the The Times of London’s print editions, speculation is rife about what caused the disappearance. Mark Landler takes us through the events and what may have caused them, including the UK’s strict libel laws and what some have described as “an unhealthy closeness” between Johnson and some outlets. | The New York Times

More information on what we do...

Today's email was written by Eduardo Suárez, Matthew Leake and Marina Adami.