Evening News, Sunday Political Shows' Climate Coverage Down By Nearly Half YOY In 2018

[hatrack]

EDIT

Coverage of climate change on the major broadcast networks declined 45 percent from 2017 to 2018. The programs aired a combined 142 minutes of climate coverage in 2018 -- less than two and a half hours. In 2017, the programs spent a combined 260 minutes on climate change. The decline would have been even steeper if not for the December 30 episode of NBC's Meet the Press, which devoted more than 46 minutes to discussing climate change.



This large drop occurred despite 2018 providing plenty of compelling reasons to cover climate change: extreme weather affecting much of the globe; new scientific research raising alarm bells; landmark climate reports being published by both the United Nations and the U.S. government; and the Trump administration continuing to undermine climate protections.

NBC was the only network to air more minutes of climate coverage in 2018 than in 2017 -- an increase of 23 percent. The other broadcast networks each spent less time on climate change in 2018 than they did the year before.



EDIT

None of the networks’ news reports on the hurricanes of 2018 mentioned climate change, even though major hurricanes struck the U.S. and generated extensive coverage. Hurricane Florence, which reached Category 4 status before hitting the Carolinas in September, broke rainfall records. One groundbreaking scientific study connected Florence’s high rainfall to climate change before the storm even reached U.S. shores. Hurricane Michael, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm in the Florida panhandle in October, was unusually intense. Scientists are becoming increasingly confident about the links between climate change and hurricanes, especially climate change’s effects on storm surge, rainfall, and overall storm intensity. But the broadcast networks are still neglecting to incorporate climate change into their hurricane coverage.

Of the extreme weather segments on ABC, CBS, and NBC that did mention climate change, four did so in the context of reporting on wildfires, three in the context of heat waves, one in the context of extreme rainfall, and one in the context of flooding caused by a Nor’easter. Fox News Sunday did not air any segments about extreme weather events that mentioned climate change. Even that low amount of coverage was an increase over the previous year: In 2017, the networks aired a total of only six segments discussing climate change in the context of weather disasters that happened that year.

EDIT

https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2019/03/11/How-broadcast-TV-networks-covered-climate-change-in-2018/223076