TUESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2021

Happy World News Day! In this newsletter you'll find a new episode of our podcast explaining how newsrooms can better cover the climate crisis and a few links that remind us why journalism matters when raising awareness about the biggest story of our time. You'll also find a datapoint on how people get their news about global warming and the names of the 10 Journalist Fellows that will join us in Oxford in the next few days. 

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Explore Digital News Report 2021 here | Check out data from your country | Download a PDF version | Read our methodology

The celebration. Today we celebrate World News Day, an initiative created by our friends at the Canadian Journalism Foundation and the World Editors Forum to draw attention to the role that journalists can play in providing trustworthy news that serves citizens and democracy. This year's celebration aims to shine a light on the critical role of fact-based journalism in raising awareness of the climate change crisis.

🌪 Journalism matters. The centrepiece of World News Day is a virtual event you can watch in this link. The video, presented by TV anchor Farah Nasser and actor Victor Garber, highlights the role journalism is playing in providing the public with facts about the impact of global warming. Here you can find a selection of news stories produced by journalists around the world. 

🙋🏿‍♀️ Doing our bit. Today we join the World News Day celebrations with a new episode of our podcast on how newsrooms can better cover the climate crisis. It features a long conversation between our Deputy Director Meera Selva and our Visiting Fellow Wolfgang Blau, who has spent the last few months looking into this topic.  

🎙️ Audio and searchable transcript of the episode here
🎧 Listen on: Spotify | Apple | Google

🏡 The best climate coverage is local. "Climate change reporting people see in much of the world is a combination of summitry and extreme events that feels remote to their lives. Journalists need better local data, access to experts and funding to cover the climate change stories on the ground in their own countries," writes Meera Selva. | Read more

🏛 It requires newsroom change. "As long as the chief editor’s team views climate change as a topic or vertical and not as a systemic issue across all desks, climate editors and reporters will struggle to have much of an impact," writes Wolfgang Blau in this piece. | Read more 

👍 It shouldn't be only negative. "Calamitous headlines strip individuals of agency, leaving them feeling overwhelmed or apathetic. Audiences need headlines that ignite their belief that they can make a difference," writes audience strategist Luba Kassova in this recent piece. She spoke with us recently in this seminar. | Read more

🛠 It should explore solutions. “We must write about the dangers, but if we don't help people to find a solution – a path to know how they can engage in a positive way – we only sow despair, and despair leads to denial,” says Brazilian reporter Sônia Bridi in this important piece by our Journalist Fellow Adele Machado Santelli, with lessons from Brazil to cover the environment and the climate crisis. | Read more

🗺 It should use innovative tools. Two of our Journalist Fellows offer an overview of digital tools journalists can use to cover the climate crisis much more effectively on the basis of our recent seminar with Gustavo Faleiros, environment investigations editor of the Rainforest Investigations Network. | Read more

Most people get their news about climate change from TV. Survey data from last year's Digital News Report shows that people pay far more attention to television when it comes to climate change than to other forms of media. However, while television is more prevalent among respondents over the age of 35, alternative sources such as social media and blogs are quite popular among younger groups. People under 25 are three times as likely to access alternative sources of news around climate change than people over 55. | Learn more

Explore Digital News Report 2021

🔗 Read the executive summary of the report. | By Nic Newman
✊🏿 How people perceive news coverage. | By Richard Fletcher 
⚖️ What audiences think about impartiality. | By Craig T. Robertson
🏡 How technology has disrupted local news. | By Anne Schulz
💰 Financing commercial news media. | By R. Fletcher and R. Nielsen
🕺🏻 How and why people use social media for news. | By Simge Andı 

📈 Explore data from your country. Figures from 46 markets
🌎 Read the report in Spanish. Explore the report in this global language
📄 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 192 slides. A presentation to use in your class

🔗 Global internet freedom has declined for the 11th consecutive year | 💉 38% of Americans who said they relied most on Trump and his task force for COVID-19 news have not been vaccinated. | 📬 400,000 subscribers in nine US cities now receive Axios' early morning local newsletters. | 💰 The Washington Post has just launched a new digital ad network. The pricing for ads will be $9 per thousand impressions. | 📰 The BBC bought more copies of The Times than of any other newspaper in 2020: the equivalent to 144 copies per day. 

A global cohort. Ten journalists from nine different countries are beginning their Journalist Fellowship at the Reuters Institute in October 2021. Here are their names and the projects they'll be working on when they join us in Oxford:

🇭🇰 Emily Chan Miu Ling will study how Hong Kong reporters can continue covering human rights issues in China. | 🇺🇸 Monica Cole will analyse how newsroom gender dynamics impact coverage of women in Latin America. | 🇬🇹 Claudia Cruz will look into what a successful media business looks like in Central America. | 🇬🇧 Rhys Evans will look into making news in a multi-national state. | 🇳🇱 Tom van der Ham will focus on the relationship between government comms and mistrust. | 🇦🇹 Klaus Knittelfelder will study the return of partisan papers. | 🇮🇳 Mehraj Lone will try to find out whether reducing volume of content can improve quality and trust. | 🇬🇧 Alex Murray will study how journalists can give contributors a positive experience when talking about traumatic grief. | 🇬🇭 Gideon Sarpong will look into ways to develop gender-inclusive guidelines to counter online abuse in West Africa. | 🇫🇮 Kirsi-Marja Takala will focus on the monetisation of podcasts.  

💰 Tuesday 28 September, 20:00 UK time. Two industry leaders share how they have adapted their retention strategies to reduce churn of digital subscribers. Speakers are Erik Zenhausern of Newsday and Pat Leader of Washington state’s Spokesman-Review. | American Press Institute

🗺️ Wednesday 29 September, 22:00 UK time. Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times contributor David Zucchino, who has reported from almost 40 countries, speaks to Susan King about his perspective on the latest events in Afghanistan. | University of North Carolina

💆 Throughout November. Register for these series of free workshops on mental health in the media launched by John Crowley and Hannah Storm. They are open to UK journalists with separate events for those at different career stages, from early career journalists to senior leaders. | Headlines Network

WE ARE READING... 

✊ Outposts of press freedom. “Smaller newsrooms – now staffed with reporters elbowed out of legacy media organisations – have been unflinching as they document the humanitarian crisis unfolding in India’s hospitals, prisons, schools, and courtrooms.” Vidya Krishnan describes India’s independent, digital-born outlets as “the last few bastions of the free press” able to hold the government to account. | Nieman Reports

🤬 Online toxicity. A strict German law hailed by supporters as a 'watershed moment' in tackling online abuse was challenged "by an influx of hate speech and harassment in the run-up to the election,” Adam Satariano reported last week. Researchers say much of it is aimed at intimidating female candidates. | New York Times

🇦🇫 A brave journalist. "All my life, I thought I was part of creating a new Afghanistan. I never imagined I’d end up a refugee." Annie Kelly profiles brave Afghan journalist Zahra Joya in this long piece for the Guardian. Our contributor Raksha Kumar spoke with Zahra right after the fall of Kabul for a piece you can read here. | The Guardian

🇨🇦 Playing dirty. Twitter suspended the account of Canadian far-right leader Maxime Bernier after he encouraged his supporters to “play dirty” with reporters who had enquired about his electoral performance. Bernier posted screenshots of the journalists' emails containing their contact information. | Vice

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