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Scoop
4 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Climate Change Coverage In A Changed Media Climate
Article – RNZ Media outlets were firing up new projects and joining alliances to cover climate change just a few years ago. Now there's just one mainstream NZ media reporter focused solely on it. Hayden Donnell, Mediawatch producer In 2021 climate change minister James Shaw talked up the government's commitment to the Paris Agreement on Facebook. 'We need to cut global emissions by 45 percent, below 2010 levels, by 2030,' he said. 'Now is the time we must decisively choose the future we want for our children.' The tenor of political discourse has changed a little since then. Our current crop of ministers are less bullish about the transition to a low-carbon economy. 'We're not going to be guilt-tripped by these fanciful accounts that the planet is boiling. We need NZ's natural resources!' Resources Minister Shane Jones said Facebook last year, in a post set against a backdrop of clipart flames. Jones is following in the footsteps of politicians overseas. Donald Trump came to office in the US with the catchy mantra 'Drill Baby Drill' in his inauguration and State of the Nation speeches. In some respects, the media environment has followed a similar trajectory to the political one. Back when James Shaw was issuing those optimistic pronouncements, several of our major media companies were making their own commitments to climate action. Stuff had launched two long-term climate coverage projects. Quick! Save The Planet was launched in 2018. The site's editor, Patrick Crewdson, said it wouldn't give space to what he called 'debunked denialism'. 'We just want to really pound away at climate change coverage on a regular basis. Increase the intensity of it. And to make the problems of climate change feel urgent and tangible and unignorable,' he told Mediawatch at the time. That morphed into The Forever Project, launched in March 2020 just as Covid-19 locked the country down. It was devoted to in-depth climate coverage from science journalists like Eloise Gibson and Olivia Wannan. The New Zealand Herald and other media organisations also got in on the act, signing up to the global Covering Climate Now initiative and creating their own climate projects. Fast forward to today, and the Forever Project still exists, but doesn't have any dedicated reporters. Gibson and Wannan have both left Stuff, the former for RNZ and the latter to do communications for the Carbon Removal Research project at the University of Canterbury. Jamie Morton, who did in-depth climate reporting as a science reporter at the Herald, is now freelancing. Climate change has dropped down the news agenda, and Gibson is now the only dedicated climate reporter at a mainstream news media outlet. This week's Framing the Emergency event at AUT came at a fraught time for the industry. A panel of Newsroom's Marc Daalder, TVNZ Marae presenter Miriama Kamo and Eloise Gibson told the gathering she got her hopes up when she saw other countries' media teams at the COP 15 Copenhagen climate summit back in 2009. 'They would have ten people in the media room working in shifts around the clock to cover different angles on this crisis. I was so jealous, and I thought: 'Is New Zealand ever going to do this?' 'Spoiler alert: it really did not,' she added. Why not? The panel pondered the parlous state of the media's finances and climate change being dragged into the culture wars. They also said despite the dearth of dedicated climate reporters, climate denial is now uncommon – and many journalists increasingly refer to the crisis in stories about subjects from weather to power prices. Climate in the culture war Marc Daalder – Newsroom's senior political reporter who covers health, energy and extremism as well as climate change – said climate change getting caught up in partisan battles between the right and left made it more challenging for journalists to state the 'very basic facts' at the heart of the issue. He pointed to outgoing deputy prime minister Winston Peters casting doubt on NIWA's data last year about carbon levels in the atmosphere. He made similar claims during the 2023 election campaign. 'When they're covering the statements of politicians, it gets really difficult,' Daalder told Mediawatch at the AUT this week. 'I don't think the media has figured out how to – while maintaining the trust of our audience – say 'that's culture war BS. That's just not a thing'.' Gibson pointed out that some media organisations did fact-check Peters' claim. But while doing so can prompt accusations of bias and sometimes online abuse, she saw them as bread and butter for news organisations. 'I don't think you can tailor your reporting to what a small group of people are going to say. You need to tailor your reporting to what you know to be accurate, what you know to be representative, and what you know most people in New Zealand want to know. They just want to know as close as you can get to the facts,' she said. 'I don't actually think that's a partisan or political thing to do. It's just doing your job.' Stating the facts about climate change may not be biased, but that doesn't mean it's not political, Gibson said. 'I don't think you can separate covering climate change from politics because policy and economic decisions are intrinsically tied up in climate change action,' she said. 'You can't not tackle politics in that. But that's not the same as being partisan.' Caught in the cutbacks Both Gibson and Daalder pointed to media cutbacks as the true existential threat to climate coverage. Gibson was worried that low salaries and a lack of opportunity were driving young reporters out of the industry. This wasn't just a hypothetical concern. One former young reporter who'd recently left the industry for a climate advocacy agency was in the crowd listening to the media panel. 'I would find it hard to look that person in the eye and say: 'My job is going to be here for you in 10 years'. I hope there'll be 10 of my jobs, 20 of my jobs – but it's hard.' Daalder said that as newsrooms have slimmed down, specialist climate coverage has been sacrificed in favour of what editorial leaders perceive to be 'core news' coverage. Rather than resisting that, Gibson saw a path forward for reporting that shows how climate change impacts immediate concerns like the cost of living. She cited the cost of gas, changes to the transport system, or the price of solar panels and batteries as matters where the slow-moving climate crisis intersects with the everyday. 'It's not that people are not concerned about climate change, it's that they have got immediate and pressing concerns that are pushing that out of their mind, and they don't have the bandwidth. And it's so obvious now that those two things are compatible and connected. So you don't have to make it relevant. It is relevant.'
Scoop
4 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Climate Change Coverage In A Changed Media Climate
In 2021 climate change minister James Shaw talked up the government's commitment to the Paris Agreement on Facebook. "We need to cut global emissions by 45 percent, below 2010 levels, by 2030," he said. "Now is the time we must decisively choose the future we want for our children." The tenor of political discourse has changed a little since then. Our current crop of ministers are less bullish about the transition to a low-carbon economy. "We're not going to be guilt-tripped by these fanciful accounts that the planet is boiling. We need NZ's natural resources!" Resources Minister Shane Jones said Facebook last year, in a post set against a backdrop of clipart flames. Jones is following in the footsteps of politicians overseas. Donald Trump came to office in the US with the catchy mantra "Drill Baby Drill" in his inauguration and State of the Nation speeches. In some respects, the media environment has followed a similar trajectory to the political one. Back when James Shaw was issuing those optimistic pronouncements, several of our major media companies were making their own commitments to climate action. Stuff had launched two long-term climate coverage projects. Quick! Save The Planet was launched in 2018. The site's editor, Patrick Crewdson, said it wouldn't give space to what he called "debunked denialism". "We just want to really pound away at climate change coverage on a regular basis. Increase the intensity of it. And to make the problems of climate change feel urgent and tangible and unignorable," he told Mediawatch at the time. That morphed into The Forever Project, launched in March 2020 just as Covid-19 locked the country down. It was devoted to in-depth climate coverage from science journalists like Eloise Gibson and Olivia Wannan. The New Zealand Herald and other media organisations also got in on the act, signing up to the global Covering Climate Now initiative and creating their own climate projects. Fast forward to today, and the Forever Project still exists, but doesn't have any dedicated reporters. Gibson and Wannan have both left Stuff, the former for RNZ and the latter to do communications for the Carbon Removal Research project at the University of Canterbury. Jamie Morton, who did in-depth climate reporting as a science reporter at the Herald, is now freelancing. Climate change has dropped down the news agenda, and Gibson is now the only dedicated climate reporter at a mainstream news media outlet. This week's Framing the Emergency event at AUT came at a fraught time for the industry. A panel of Newsroom's Marc Daalder, TVNZ Marae presenter Miriama Kamo and Eloise Gibson told the gathering she got her hopes up when she saw other countries' media teams at the COP 15 Copenhagen climate summit back in 2009. "They would have ten people in the media room working in shifts around the clock to cover different angles on this crisis. I was so jealous, and I thought: 'Is New Zealand ever going to do this?' "Spoiler alert: it really did not," she added. Why not? The panel pondered the parlous state of the media's finances and climate change being dragged into the culture wars. They also said despite the dearth of dedicated climate reporters, climate denial is now uncommon - and many journalists increasingly refer to the crisis in stories about subjects from weather to power prices. Climate in the culture war Marc Daalder - Newsroom's senior political reporter who covers health, energy and extremism as well as climate change - said climate change getting caught up in partisan battles between the right and left made it more challenging for journalists to state the "very basic facts" at the heart of the issue. He pointed to outgoing deputy prime minister Winston Peters casting doubt on NIWA's data last year about carbon levels in the atmosphere. He made similar claims during the 2023 election campaign. "When they're covering the statements of politicians, it gets really difficult," Daalder told Mediawatch at the AUT this week. "I don't think the media has figured out how to - while maintaining the trust of our audience - say 'that's culture war BS. That's just not a thing'." Gibson pointed out that some media organisations did fact-check Peters' claim. But while doing so can prompt accusations of bias and sometimes online abuse, she saw them as bread and butter for news organisations. "I don't think you can tailor your reporting to what a small group of people are going to say. You need to tailor your reporting to what you know to be accurate, what you know to be representative, and what you know most people in New Zealand want to know. They just want to know as close as you can get to the facts," she said. "I don't actually think that's a partisan or political thing to do. It's just doing your job." Stating the facts about climate change may not be biased, but that doesn't mean it's not political, Gibson said. "I don't think you can separate covering climate change from politics because policy and economic decisions are intrinsically tied up in climate change action," she said. "You can't not tackle politics in that. But that's not the same as being partisan." Caught in the cutbacks Both Gibson and Daalder pointed to media cutbacks as the true existential threat to climate coverage. Gibson was worried that low salaries and a lack of opportunity were driving young reporters out of the industry. This wasn't just a hypothetical concern. One former young reporter who'd recently left the industry for a climate advocacy agency was in the crowd listening to the media panel. "I would find it hard to look that person in the eye and say: 'My job is going to be here for you in 10 years'. I hope there'll be 10 of my jobs, 20 of my jobs - but it's hard." Daalder said that as newsrooms have slimmed down, specialist climate coverage has been sacrificed in favour of what editorial leaders perceive to be 'core news' coverage. Rather than resisting that, Gibson saw a path forward for reporting that shows how climate change impacts immediate concerns like the cost of living. She cited the cost of gas, changes to the transport system, or the price of solar panels and batteries as matters where the slow-moving climate crisis intersects with the everyday. "It's not that people are not concerned about climate change, it's that they have got immediate and pressing concerns that are pushing that out of their mind, and they don't have the bandwidth. And it's so obvious now that those two things are compatible and connected. So you don't have to make it relevant. It is relevant."
GMA Network
22-05-2025
- Business
- GMA Network
7-Eleven PH bullish on VisMin for expansion
Philippine Seven Corp. (PSC), the exclusive licensor of convenience store 7-Eleven in the country, on Thursday said it is on track to achieve its goal of 500 new stores this year as it is looking to ride on the growth of consumer demand in the Visayas and Mindanao regions. According to PSC president and chief executive officer Jose Victor Paterno, the Visayas and Mindanao regions continue to outperform, which he said was a post-pandemic phenomenon. 'I think last year, almost half the new stores were in VisMin. More than half this year will be in VisMin because it's growing, because they are the most profitable stores, where there's the most consumer demand,' he said in Makati City. The company earlier said it plans to open 500 new stores in 2025 and hit 5,000 stores in 2026. It ended 2024 with 4,130 stores—1,974 of which were franchise stores, and the remaining 2,156 company-owned. 'We continue to monitor. Of course we look for trends and say, the new stores we're opening in the different regions are still doing well — yes, then we continue, and when we see signs of a slowdown or something like, okay, we're oversaturating this region, or this region is slowing down for whatever reason,' Paterno said. 'What I can tell you is that it's pretty strong, and thankfully VisMin continues to outperform,' he added. Asked for his outlook, Paterno said the company is optimistic that it will outperform the second half of 2024. Its third-quarter net income climbed 13.1% to P813.9 million and rose by 1.4% to P1.233 billion in the fourth quarter. 'I think if current economic conditions persist, mathematically we will surpass the second half because the second half was so weak because of maybe the POGOs (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators), but again, we don't know what's going to happen in the second half, what's going to happen with tariffs,' he said. President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr., in his State of the Nation Address in July 2024, ordered the ban on all POGOs by the end of 2024, citing the sector's 'grave abuse' and 'disrespect' to the country's system and laws. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, in what he termed the 'Liberation Day' policy, planned to slap a 17% reciprocal tariff on Philippine goods, which compares with the 34% rate that Manila charges against American goods. This was set to take effect on April 9, but Trump has since announced a 90-day pause on most countries except China, while countries such as the Philippines could still face a baseline 10% tariff. Shares in PSC were last traded at P46.00 apiece, up by P0.50 or 1.10% from Wednesday's finish of P45.50 per share. — VBL, GMA Integrated News
Ottawa Citizen
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Ottawa Citizen
Rider training camp: Fans get to ask the tough questions at State of the Nation event
Article content It was the fans' turn to ask the Saskatchewan Roughriders brass some (tough?) questions Article content The Green and White Nation once again had an opportunity to participate directly in the Riders' annual State of the Nation event at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex in Saskatoon. Article content Fans — young and old — took their turn on the microphone with an assortment of queries for the Riders panel consisting of Roughrider head coach Corey Mace, general manager Jeremy O'Day and team president Craig Reynolds. Article content Article content Article content Article content * Article content MACE: Great question. Look, we've got a couple of backs that you'll see. My guy Mario Anderson is an unbelievable running back. He's still getting used to the (Canadian) game, as are the other young guys. Trevor Pennix, he's awesome as well. And we've still got what we like to call Thomas the Train (Thomas Bertrand-Hudon). So we feel good about the guys we brought in, they all have different skill-sets. Penix, you're going to see him, he looks like a linebacker who's as fast as a running back. Thomas the Train is steady. And then Mario had, just last year in college, something like 1,600 or 1,800 total yards in offence. So we were pleased to get him in there. We feel confident. It'll be good to see them versus someone else just to validate what we think, but, again, it's another position we felt we had pretty good depth at. Article content Article content * Article content Article content FAN: Having watched UFL on TV from the States, is there any thought in the league given to attracting a significant American TV contract, possibly moving the season forward by a week, just to get the product because, in my humble opinion, the CFL is five times the calibre of football that the UFL is and they're getting big bucks from FOX?
Ottawa Citizen
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Ottawa Citizen
Roughrider training camp: Prized free agent addition Sean McEwen 'out for a while'
Article content Sean McEwen won't be getting in the Saskatchewan Roughriders line-up any time soon. Article content Article content Riders head coach Corey Mace broke the news — and it wasn't good news — to an assembly of fans during the State of the Nation panel discussion Saturday afternoon at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. Article content While McEwen got injured during one-on-one drills earlier in the week during Roughriders training camp at Griffiths Stadium, there hadn't been an update, as to just how serious the injury was, until fans heard it first-hand that it's serious enough to keep the three-time CFL all-star out of the line-up longer term. Article content Article content McEwen, a 6-foot-1, 295-pound offensive lineman from Calgary, was a prized free-agent acquisition during the off-season. He had played 132 regular-season CFL games with the Toronto Argonauts and Calgary Stampeders before joining the Riders. Article content Article content 'With Sean,' Mace told fans huddled up in the hall, 'unfortunately Sean suffered an injury that's going to keep him out for a while, guys. You guys are going to be the first to get that information here right now. And it sucks. It sucks for him more than anything.' Article content McEwen, a former first-round pick in the 2015 CFL Draft, was pencilled in to be the Riders' new centre on the offensive line. Article content McEwen came in as a three-time all-CFL selection, a three-time West Division all-star and one-time East Division all-star. Article content On Saturday, he appeared on the sidelines during the Green and White Day scrimmage with a brace on his leg. Article content Even if McEwen won't be seeing any game action any time soon, the Riders want to keep him involved. Article content 'You feel for Sean, but he made it very clear that he wants to get his finger sized (for a Grey Cup ring),' noted Mace. 'So he's going to do everything he can to help us still. He'll remain with us in some form, or fashion, and he's a heck of a mind. In talking with him, he said, 'I know I've only been here for this amount of days but there's something different here.' It's good to hear that validation from somebody coming from the outside in. Just an unfortunate situation and unfortunate part of football.' Article content Article content In McEwen's place, Zack Fry has been taking starting reps at centre with fellow Canadian national offensive lineman Logan Ferland at left guard and American import Jacob Brammer at right guard. Article content Article content The Riders will open their preseason next Saturday, May 24 when they visit the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Article content Training camp continues Monday through Friday at Griffiths Stadium in Nutrien Park on the University of Saskatchewan campus. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content
