Telling Climate Change Stories: Perspectives from African Journalists

The document highlights a gap between Africa's high climate vulnerability and the volume of its media coverage, particularly from international sources. It identifies key barriers for local journalists, including insufficient funding, restricted data access, and safety concerns. To improve reporting, the authors recommend shifting from crisis-driven narratives to those highlighting local agency and Indigenous knowledge, while calling for international partnerships and capacity-building investments.

• African perspectives are marginalized in global climate dialogue because international media coverage does not reflect the continent's disproportionate vulnerability to intense floods, droughts, and storms.
• Local climate reporting in Africa is hindered by several systemic bottlenecks: a lack of funding, bureaucratic or financial barriers to scientific data, and safety risks for reporters in unstable or disaster-affected areas. Sub-Saharan Africa specifically has the lowest per capita spending on climate and weather information services of any region.
• Current media framing often overemphasizes crises and portrays Africa as a 'helpless victim', which obscures local innovation and can foster 'climate doomism'.

APA

Mbungu, G., George, S., & Roberts, I. (2024). Telling Climate Change Stories: Perspectives from African Journalists. Africa Policy Research Institute. https://afripoli.org/telling-climate-change-stories-perspectives-from-african-journalists

Chicago

Mbungu, Grace, Sage George, and Isabella Roberts. Telling Climate Change Stories: Perspectives from African Journalists. Africa Policy Research Institute, 2024. https://afripoli.org/telling-climate-change-stories-perspectives-from-african-journalists.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Mbungu |first1=Grace |last2=George |first2=Sage |last3=Roberts |first3=Isabella |title=Telling Climate Change Stories: Perspectives from African Journalists |publisher=Africa Policy Research Institute |date=30 October 2024 |url=https://afripoli.org/telling-climate-change-stories-perspectives-from-african-journalists |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mbungu2024telling, author = {Mbungu, Grace and George, Sage and Roberts, Isabella}, title = {{Telling Climate Change Stories: Perspectives from African Journalists}}, institution = {Africa Policy Research Institute}, year = {2024}, month = oct, url = {https://afripoli.org/telling-climate-change-stories-perspectives-from-african-journalists}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }