Climate change affects people of color the most. But TV news lacks representation, report finds.

Nada Hassanein, USA TODAY
·4 min read
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Television news lacks people of color as guests in climate segments, a new analysis found, despite communities of color bearing the most impact from climate change.

Media Matters, a nonprofit media watchdog organization, released its annual analysis on Feb. 28 on how broadcast news organizations covered climate change last year.

While climate change coverage on television news increased for a second consecutive year, it accounted for just 1% of corporate broadcast segments in 2022, according to the study, which analyzed climate coverage from ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.

Of guest appearances, non-Hispanic white men made up the majority – 57% – of that 1%, while women of color made up just 9%. Men of color accounted for 11%. Media Matters counted guests as those who were government officials, activists and advocates, and experts such as scientists.

The analysis also found a lack of segments discussing climate justice, which refers to climate change's disproportionate impact on front-line communities, as well as their lack of contribution to factors that drive a warming climate, such as fossil fuels.

As the world contends with a dangerously warming climate, the findings show significant gaps in climate and climate justice coverage in America’s television news broadcasts, advocates and experts say.

Who does climate change most affect?

Research shows communities of color face disproportionate harm from climate change and pollution while contributing the least to it. In polls, more respondents of color compared to white respondents reported they are concerned about climate change.

The Lancet's most recent "Countdown" report on health and climate change, for example, details how climate threats amplify inequities due to structural racism and the intersecting risks that come with it. While more than 40% of the U.S. population lived in cities where air pollution levels exceeded safe standards, areas of the country with the largest projected increases in heat-related deaths are 40% more likely to be Black communities, the researchers found.

“It's indefensible that these stories continue to go unheard on national news networks, that they failed to amplify, elevate voices from frontline communities, who can really speak to the unique challenges that they face. And this is something that they should have rectified,” said Evlondo Cooper, climate and energy senior writer at Media Matters, who assisted with the analysis.

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Climate change coverage lacks people of color in guest appearances

Media Matters examined ABC, CBS and NBC’s morning news, nightly news and Sunday morning political shows, and Fox's Sunday show.

Climate change coverage, such as on nightly news shows, has fluctuated over the past decade. And while it accounted for just 1% of coverage in 2022, Media Matters calculated climate change totaled 404 minutes of air time, up from 344 minutes in 2021 – the second-highest year.

Still, people of color were lacking in overall guest appearances across all four networks:

  • Non-Hispanic white people made up 80% of 657 guest appearances on climate segments, with non-Hispanic white men making up 57%.

  • Out of 215 nightly news shows, only 27% were women, 79% were non-Hispanic white men, and 21% were Black, Indigenous, or other people of color.

  • On morning news shows, women of color made up just 8% of climate segments.

  • Despite this, only 18 of 554 total segments discussed climate justice. In addition, just 8% of segments included discussions on fossil fuels as a driving force behind the warming climate.

“Even as we've made slight improvements or improvements on time of coverage overall, there still is an area where they lag,” Cooper said, adding the analysis also shows the importance of diversifying the TV news workforce.

Spokespeople for CBS and ABC did not directly comment on the report but pointed to their climate coverage as examples. NBC News did not respond to a request for comment as of Tuesday.

'Work is still needed'

Beverly Wright, an environmental justice scholar and founder of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University, said the findings weren't surprising.

“This is the paradigm that we live in that is mostly male-dominated and plays out in every area including coverage about climate and climate justice," she said.

Irene Burga, the Climate and Clean Air Program Director at GreenLatinos, called it ridiculous and appalling. "It just shows how much work is still needed,” she said.

Including voices of advocates and experts of color in television news coverage is critical, she said, as networks are influential sources in informing Americans on the climate crisis.

“There's a huge environmental justice burden that's connected to redlining, and our history of environmental racism in the U.S.,” Burga said. “Those are connections that aren't made in mainstream media, and that needs to be made because the average consumer of media hasn't made those connections on their own.”

Dig Deeper: Environmental Justice

Reach Nada Hassanein at nhassanein@usatoday.com or on Twitter @nhassanein_.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Climate coverage on TV news lacks people of color, Media Maters finds