Reuters Institute launches Oxford Climate Journalism Network
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is launching a new initiative to help improve reporting of the climate crisis.
The Oxford Climate Journalism Network – funded in the first year by a £475,000 grant from the European Climate Foundation – is aimed at helping journalists and newsroom leaders transform the way they cover the crisis.
The project will empower participants to strengthen their competences in covering climate change as something which intersects with many aspects of our lives and societies.
Journalists and editors worldwide will be given unique access to world-leading experts and professional forums for exchanging ideas with peers.
They will also be connected with relevant scientists and research to help think through the professional, organisational, and ethical questions journalism faces when it comes to climate coverage.
The network will be structured around four key elements:
- Online six-month courses for practising journalists to provide support in identifying relevant sources, sessions with world-leading experts, and connect them with colleagues at other news organisations.
- Leadership programmes for senior editors and newsroom managers globally selected for breadth, diversity, impact and commitment to implementing change in newsrooms.
- Journalist Fellowships for mid-career journalists to join the Institute in Oxford to work on projects related to different aspects of how news media approach climate change.
- Original academic research to track how people access climate change news in a range of countries, how and whether they share it, what they think of it, and how much trust they have in it.
The project is led by two co-founders, the Reuters Institute’s Deputy Director Meera Selva and Visiting Fellow and Advisory Board Member Wolfgang Blau.
Wolfgang said: "The accelerating climate crisis poses questions to all verticals of a news organisation, whether that is in their science, politics, business, culture, health, lifestyle, technology or sports journalism.
“The Oxford Climate Journalism Network will provide journalists and newsroom managers with knowledge, advice, research and professional forums on how to expand and improve their coverage of climate change. I would like to thank the Reuters Institute, the European Climate Foundation and the University of Oxford for their support and partnership in this critical endeavour."
Membership applications to the first online course of the Network are open to working journalists, employed or freelance. Members must commit to participating in a certain number of workshops and knowledge sessions per year and provide a letter of support from their respective editor or newsroom manager.
