On April 15th and 16th, the Novi Sad School of Journalism organized a conference titled “The Role of Media in Addressing the Climate Crisis” in Novi Sad, providing a meeting place for media professionals and experts in climate change and environmental protection.
The conference was attended by journalists, experts from various fields, representatives from civil society organizations, and regional public authorities, all aiming for collaborative efforts to improve professional journalistic reporting on climate change issues in the region.
On the first day of the conference, three panel discussions were held, during which participants discussed important issues related to the climate crisis and how the media, scientists, and institutions convey this information to the public. The first discussion focused on how to correctly understand and interpret scientific data, with panelists including Professor Vladimir Đurđević from the Faculty of Physics in Belgrade, eco-activist Blaze Josifovski, Master of Science in Applied Meteorology and Climate Nedim Sladić, Luka Mitrović from the Institute of Hydrometeorology and Seismology of Montenegro, and Ani Bajrami, a professor from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Tirana.
Professor Vladimir Đurđević shared his experience, emphasizing that one of the biggest obstacles to quality journalistic reporting on climate change is the fact that media “lack time” for long stories that require complex explanations, detailed analyses, and verified scientific facts. Anthropologist Ani Bajrami highlighted that a complicating factor is that citizens generally do not understand the basics of science, which is why journalists should connect climate change with citizens’ daily lives in their professional work, making the issue more relatable through such stories.
It was noted as poor journalistic practice to present complex numbers when informing the public about the climate crisis. Such data mean little to the part of the audience that does not understand the broader context and also complicates the fundamental understanding of the problem. The panel concluded that the media often, if at all, report on the climate crisis ad hoc, only after a crisis situation occurs, and that such reporting lacks continuity and strategic planning. The panelists unanimously recommended that journalists not necessarily separate the topic of climate change from other topics but try to incorporate climate information into their everyday stories.
The discussion continued with another panel on the role of the media in addressing the climate crisis, with a special focus on last year’s Climate Change Conference held in Dubai. The participants were Dragana Radulović, Head of the Climate Change Department at the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the Republic of Serbia; Milena Kapa, Secretary of the Committee on Tourism, Agriculture, Ecology, and Spatial Planning of the Assembly of Montenegro; and freelance journalist Inva Hasanaliaj from Albania.
In discussing the Climate Change Conference, Inva Hasanaliaj noted that from the perspective of an investigative journalist, last year’s conference in Dubai appeared to be a pure marketing stunt and PR event, while Secretary Milena Kapa explained that every COP has a political background. The panelists also discussed the main problems governments face in addressing climate crisis issues and whether the public is informed about the challenges and potential solutions to the climate crisis.
The conference continued with brief presentations by three experts from different fields, offering additional practical guidelines for the attending journalists and scientists. Science communicator Jelena Kalinić presented on how we should communicate science, followed by FakeNews Tragača editor Stefan Janjić, who pointed out shortcomings in the use of artificial intelligence. Finally, Nikola Ristić, an activist and entrepreneur, discussed why the media should use social networks today.
The first day of the conference concluded with a panel on the very important topic of misinformation and specific narratives circulating about climate change. Ivan Subotić, Deputy Editor of FakeNews Tragača, first explained that mainstream media write about global warming primarily from a neutral position, while some smaller, obscure regional portals “feed their audience false and dangerous narratives.”
One of these manipulative narratives is defining climate change as a weapon. In this context, Ivana Vojinović, Director of the Center for Climate Change at UDG, added that this is a very dangerous narrative against which we can only fight through education and media that rely solely on scientifically verified information when covering this “hot” topic.
The second day of the conference was dedicated to regional and local frameworks in addressing climate change. This panel included Milena Kapa, Secretary of the Committee on Tourism, Agriculture, Ecology, and Spatial Planning of the Assembly of Montenegro; Luka Mitrović from the Institute of Hydrometeorology and Seismology of Montenegro; and Nataša Markovska from the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
“LDCs suffer the most from the impacts of climate change and cannot tackle them alone, which is why global joint policies are very important,” emphasized Luka Mitrović. He also pointed out that, at least in the case of Montenegro, each local area has its specific problems caused by climate and climate change. Therefore, it is necessary to develop special strategies at the local level to reduce potential future damage. In Serbia, Nikola Blagojević notes that promises are frequent, but their implementation is low, although small progress exists.
The last panel discussed ways to effectively engage the audience, with participants including Petar Klaić, a journalist from Oradija; science journalist Jelena Kalinić; journalist Snežana Radusinović from Radio and Television of Montenegro; and Aleksandar Manasiev, a media consultant and freelance journalist. Petar Klaić suggested that journalists should devise a highly focused topic and then process it multimedia. “Shortening loses quality, but without it, we cannot reach part of the audience. If we are careful enough, we can shorten the message concisely while retaining its meaning. For every story I start to work on, I know in advance what my key word is. Journalists need to get used to that,” concluded Petar Klaić. Other panelists also emphasized the importance of using social media, adapting online content for mobile devices, and educating citizens scientifically.
The report from the Media Summit is originally available in Serbian language at the following LINK.