The public cares about climate change, and wants to hear about it from broadcasters they trust. And it isn’t easy for many journalists to get climate stories onto the airwaves. That’s where we come in.

As ex-news journalists, we know that complex climate and nature stories can feel unsuited to the pace of the daily news round. Most newsrooms hand the story to climate specialists, who compete with reporters in areas such as politics, health or economics. These other desks can also miss opportunities to see the connections between their subject and climate change. Framing climate stories is challenging for all desks.

About Climate News Tracker – Eye Graphic
About Climate News Tracker – AI

We partner with Exeter University to create original research that objectively tracks UK broadcast reporting on climate change in a way that has never been done before.

Until now, broadcast media coverage has been difficult to monitor and analyse reliably. Exeter University’s newly formed Centre for Climate Communication and Data Science (C3DS) has built a custom application which uses state-of-the-art AI tools to continuously track climate related coverage from the BBC, ITV, Sky News, Channel 4, and Channel 5 – covering television, radio, online media, and social media feeds.

We publish this data as a resource for newsrooms to know where, how often and in what way they are reporting on climate. By understanding broadcast output more accurately, newsrooms can plug the gaps, spot new opportunities and widen the reach of climate and nature reporting.

We also track audience research into how the public perceives climate news, building on broadcasters’ existing insight, to help them provide climate news that makes audiences feel informed, motivated and hopeful.

As Climate News Tracker develops, we will offer data and insights, regular reports, briefings, workshops and events, designed to support, inform and champion the best quality climate journalism across public service newsrooms.


Team

We are a group of former news journalists, managers, communications specialists and academics, united by a desire to support and promote excellence in public service climate journalism on the UK’s main TV, radio and online news bulletins.

Dr Sylvia Hayes

Dr Sylvia Hayes

Research Fellow

Dr Sarwat Qureshi

Dr Sarwat Qureshi

Research Fellow

Mark Smalley

Mark Smalley

Co-Founder

Claire Stocks

Claire Stocks

Co-Founder

Alan Strange

Alan Strange

Managing Editor

David Weiland

David Weiland

Co-Founder

Phoebe Wollocombe

Phoebe Wollocombe

Co-Founder


Climate News Tracker is a not-for-profit organisation funded by philanthropy

Climate News Tracker Eye

Our monitoring tool is currently under development.

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