Sector Outline
Within the sector there are a number of areas of work:
Environmentalscience.org notes:
‘Environmental writers write about environmental topics for a variety of outlets. For example, they may cover energy, environmental policy, water issues, climate change, environmental justice, or new technologies and industry news. They may write in one style for one publication or employer, or many styles for different markets.’
Many people in the sector have ‘portfolio careers’ where they work in a number of different areas for different clients such as a writer who could work as a magazine editor, green article writer, green blogger and corporate sustainability report writer within their portfolio.
In recent years, blogging and vlogging has become a distinct job option.
Full time roles for news and other organisations can be in roles such as writer, editor and journalist.
There has been a fundamental shift away from the print media towards broadcast media and new media. Newer platforms such as YouTube and the growth of the green media and online news services have enabled green writers to reach bigger audiences more swiftly.
The shift to online media has largely been due to advertising and news viewing moving online. The Columbia Journalism Review (2016) in the USA noted:
‘In 2005, for every one digital-only journalist, there were 20 newspaper journalists. In 2015, for every one digital-only journalist, there were four newspaper journalists.’
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in its report ‘Employment trends in newspaper publishing and other media, 1990–2016’ highlighted this change:
‘Few industries have been affected by the digital or information age as much as newspapers and other traditional publishing industries (books, magazines, etc.). In June 1990, there were nearly 458,000 people employed in the newspaper publishing industry; by March 2016, that figure had fallen to about 183,000, a decline of almost 60 percent. Over the same period, employment in Internet publishing and broadcasting rose from about 30,000 to nearly 198,000.’
Roy Greenslade of the Guardian in 2016 reported:
‘Cutbacks have been the reality of the news trade in Britain for the best part of 20 years at national, regional and local level. And the same story has been unfolding in the USA, Canada, Australia and most European countries. The cause, as we all know, is the onward march of the digital revolution. We who praise its advance cannot also help but lament its disruption...no publisher, despite differing motivations, can escape the commercial effects of a technological revolution that is in the process of destroying the funding mechanism that has underpinned newspaper companies for more than 150 years.’
Regional newspapers in the UK have shown significant declines, mainly fueled by a growth in fully searchable advertisements by specialized online sellers. The Press Gazette (2017) noted that the rise of online advertising had led to a 70 percent cut in journalist numbers at larger UK regional newspapers.
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2016) noted:
‘Journalism plays a pivotal role in keeping us informed and critically aware. But in a period when digital communications technologies are violently disrupting news industry business models there is confusion and debate as to whether the result is less journalism, worse journalism or more and better journalism delivered through a more diverse array of media, including social media…
The best paid jobs are still in television, where disruptive forces bearing on news are weaker. The proportion of journalists working in newspapers has fallen sharply, but disagreement about definitions makes it unsettled whether overall in the digital age we have more or less journalism and more or fewer journalists.
The authors estimate that there are now 30,000 journalists working wholly or partly online, but many bloggers are excluded from this count, along with others whose journalistic identity is complex.
Digital influences also mean that journalists have more data about audience responses to their work; it remains unclear to what extent they feel bullied by this into the clickbait game, rather than feeling that they can use the data to make better, independent decisions about how to provide a service the audience values.’
The report also stated that 2% of the reporters surveyed said they worked in the ‘Environment’ area.
It has to be noted that in many regions, environmental reporting is a dangerous career to develop. Every year, large numbers or journalists are injured and killed for their reporting. In 2018, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported that 81 journalists were killed in 2017 and that:
‘unprecedented numbers of journalists were jailed, forced to flee, that self-censorship was widespread and that impunity for the killings, harassment, attacks and threats against independent journalism was running at epidemic levels.’
According to IFJ records, the Asia Pacific has the highest killing tally, followed by the Arab World and Middle East, The Americas, Africa then Europe.
Career and Job Links
UK
Conservation Careers – How to be a wildlife journalist
www.conservation-careers.com/conservation-jobs-careers-advice/how-to-be-a-wildlife-journalist/
Mya-Rose ‘Birdgirl’ Craig
www.birdgirluk.com
Black Girls Hike UK
@UkBgh
Black2Nature
@officialb2n
Black and Green ambassadors
@ujimaBlackGreen
Europe
European Journalism Observatory (EJO) (2020) ‘Do European media take climate change seriously enough?’
www.en.ejo.ch/specialist-journalism/do-european-media-take-climate-change-seriously-enough
European Commission (2020) ‘Media Freedom Projects’
www.ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/media-freedom-projects
European Journalism Centre
www.ejc.net
EUSJA
www.eusja.org/about
Asia
Reuters Institute
www.reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/risj-review/chinese-environmental-journalism-and-sustainable-development
UNESCO
www.en.unesco.org/news/promoting-quality-reporting-environmental-journalism-uzbekistan
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (2012) ‘Environmental Journalism in Asia-Pacific’
www.kas.de/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=35ed2557-510c-0aaf-c61a-306f17f7a0e2&groupId=252038
Africa
Oxpeckers Center for Investigative Environmental Journalism
www.oxpeckers.org
Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR)
www.fairreporters.wordpress.com
Arab Media & Society
www.arabmediasociety.com/environmental-journalism-in-the-uae/
North America
Society for Environmental Journalists
www.sej.org
www.sej.org/library/education-environmental-journalism-programs-and-courses
The National Association of Science Writers
www.nasw.org
NAAEE (2018) ‘Science training and environmental journalism today: Effects of science journalism training for midcareer professionals’
www.naaee.org/eepro/research/library/science-training-and-environmental
Columbia Journalism Review ‘Environmental Journalism? Environmentalism?’
www.archives.cjr.org/behind_the_news/environmental_journalism_envir.php
World Resources Institute
www.wri.org/blog/2013/03/troubling-trends-environmental-journalism
The Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism
www.knightrisser.stanford.edu
John B Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism
www.journalism.columbia.edu/oakes
The Baron
www.thebaron.info/news/article/2017/07/12/reuters-wins-environmental-journalism-award
Green Writers Press
www.greenwriterspress.com
The Future of Science and Environmental Journalism
www.wilsoncenter.org/event/the-future-science-and-environmental-journalism
Black Girls Hike
@BlackGirlsHike
South America
Pulitzer Center (2018) ‘Latin American Media Outlets Call for Increased Climate Reporting’
www.pulitzercenter.org/blog/latin-american-media-outlets-call-increased-climate-reporting
EurekAlert! American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2020) ‘A new cross-border science journalism initiative for Latin America’
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-02/hhmi-anc021020.php
InquireFirst
www.inquirefirst.org
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Latin America
www.ifj.org/where/latin-america-and-the-caribbean/ifj-latin-america.html
Oceania
TheGuardian.com ‘Our wide brown land’
www.theguardian.com/environment/series/our-wide-brown-land
Pacific Media Centre
www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/categories/environmental-journalism
Science Media Centre ‘Who’s reporting science-related issues in New Zealand?’
https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/journos
Global
ICT (2016) ‘The 87 Best Blogs for Treehuggers and Climate Change Warriors’
www.ictcompliance.com/blog/the-87-best-blogs-for-treehuggers-and-climate-change-warriors/
Greenmatch (2019) ‘Top Environmental Bloggers’
www.greenmatch.co.uk/blog/2016/09/top-environmental-influencers-2016
Stephen Leahy
www.stephenleahy.net/
World Federation of Science Journalists
www.wfsj.org
SciDev.Net
www.scidev.net/global/communication/journalism
Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE)
www.asle.org
Reporters without Borders
www.rsf.org/en/news/environmental-journalism-increasingly-hostile-climate
David Roberts (2013) ‘Climate change and environmental journalism’
www.grist.org/climate-energy/climate-change-and-environmental-journalism/
WWF (2009) Environmental journalism and its challenges
wwf.panda.org/?158642%2FEnvironmental-journalism-and-its-challenges
Felix Dodds
www.blog.felixdodds.net/
Minorities in Polar Research
@PolarImpact
Conservation Optimism blog
www.conservationoptimism.org/our-blog
We are all Wonderwomen
www.weareallwonderwomen.com
SEAL (Sustainability, Environmental Achievement & Leadership) Environmental Journalism Awards
www.sealawards.com/environmental-journalism-award-winners/
The Guardian UK (2017) ‘Guardian wins at the 2017 SEAL Environmental Journalism Awards’
www.theguardian.com/gnm-press-office/2017/oct/02/guardian-wins-at-the-seal-2017-environmental-journalism-awards
Earth Journalism Network (EJN)
www.earthjournalism.net
Environmental Journalists
www.environmentaljournalists.org/home
Within the sector there are a number of areas of work:
- Journalists – print and online
- Bloggers and vloggers
- Non-fiction Writers – in varied roles from book authors to corporate material writers – technical writers or communications/media materials
- Fiction writers
- Broadcast media employees
Environmentalscience.org notes:
‘Environmental writers write about environmental topics for a variety of outlets. For example, they may cover energy, environmental policy, water issues, climate change, environmental justice, or new technologies and industry news. They may write in one style for one publication or employer, or many styles for different markets.’
Many people in the sector have ‘portfolio careers’ where they work in a number of different areas for different clients such as a writer who could work as a magazine editor, green article writer, green blogger and corporate sustainability report writer within their portfolio.
In recent years, blogging and vlogging has become a distinct job option.
Full time roles for news and other organisations can be in roles such as writer, editor and journalist.
There has been a fundamental shift away from the print media towards broadcast media and new media. Newer platforms such as YouTube and the growth of the green media and online news services have enabled green writers to reach bigger audiences more swiftly.
The shift to online media has largely been due to advertising and news viewing moving online. The Columbia Journalism Review (2016) in the USA noted:
‘In 2005, for every one digital-only journalist, there were 20 newspaper journalists. In 2015, for every one digital-only journalist, there were four newspaper journalists.’
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in its report ‘Employment trends in newspaper publishing and other media, 1990–2016’ highlighted this change:
‘Few industries have been affected by the digital or information age as much as newspapers and other traditional publishing industries (books, magazines, etc.). In June 1990, there were nearly 458,000 people employed in the newspaper publishing industry; by March 2016, that figure had fallen to about 183,000, a decline of almost 60 percent. Over the same period, employment in Internet publishing and broadcasting rose from about 30,000 to nearly 198,000.’
Roy Greenslade of the Guardian in 2016 reported:
‘Cutbacks have been the reality of the news trade in Britain for the best part of 20 years at national, regional and local level. And the same story has been unfolding in the USA, Canada, Australia and most European countries. The cause, as we all know, is the onward march of the digital revolution. We who praise its advance cannot also help but lament its disruption...no publisher, despite differing motivations, can escape the commercial effects of a technological revolution that is in the process of destroying the funding mechanism that has underpinned newspaper companies for more than 150 years.’
Regional newspapers in the UK have shown significant declines, mainly fueled by a growth in fully searchable advertisements by specialized online sellers. The Press Gazette (2017) noted that the rise of online advertising had led to a 70 percent cut in journalist numbers at larger UK regional newspapers.
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2016) noted:
‘Journalism plays a pivotal role in keeping us informed and critically aware. But in a period when digital communications technologies are violently disrupting news industry business models there is confusion and debate as to whether the result is less journalism, worse journalism or more and better journalism delivered through a more diverse array of media, including social media…
The best paid jobs are still in television, where disruptive forces bearing on news are weaker. The proportion of journalists working in newspapers has fallen sharply, but disagreement about definitions makes it unsettled whether overall in the digital age we have more or less journalism and more or fewer journalists.
The authors estimate that there are now 30,000 journalists working wholly or partly online, but many bloggers are excluded from this count, along with others whose journalistic identity is complex.
Digital influences also mean that journalists have more data about audience responses to their work; it remains unclear to what extent they feel bullied by this into the clickbait game, rather than feeling that they can use the data to make better, independent decisions about how to provide a service the audience values.’
The report also stated that 2% of the reporters surveyed said they worked in the ‘Environment’ area.
It has to be noted that in many regions, environmental reporting is a dangerous career to develop. Every year, large numbers or journalists are injured and killed for their reporting. In 2018, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported that 81 journalists were killed in 2017 and that:
‘unprecedented numbers of journalists were jailed, forced to flee, that self-censorship was widespread and that impunity for the killings, harassment, attacks and threats against independent journalism was running at epidemic levels.’
According to IFJ records, the Asia Pacific has the highest killing tally, followed by the Arab World and Middle East, The Americas, Africa then Europe.
Career and Job Links
UK
Conservation Careers – How to be a wildlife journalist
www.conservation-careers.com/conservation-jobs-careers-advice/how-to-be-a-wildlife-journalist/
Mya-Rose ‘Birdgirl’ Craig
www.birdgirluk.com
Black Girls Hike UK
@UkBgh
Black2Nature
@officialb2n
Black and Green ambassadors
@ujimaBlackGreen
Europe
European Journalism Observatory (EJO) (2020) ‘Do European media take climate change seriously enough?’
www.en.ejo.ch/specialist-journalism/do-european-media-take-climate-change-seriously-enough
European Commission (2020) ‘Media Freedom Projects’
www.ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/media-freedom-projects
European Journalism Centre
www.ejc.net
EUSJA
www.eusja.org/about
Asia
Reuters Institute
www.reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/risj-review/chinese-environmental-journalism-and-sustainable-development
UNESCO
www.en.unesco.org/news/promoting-quality-reporting-environmental-journalism-uzbekistan
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (2012) ‘Environmental Journalism in Asia-Pacific’
www.kas.de/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=35ed2557-510c-0aaf-c61a-306f17f7a0e2&groupId=252038
Africa
Oxpeckers Center for Investigative Environmental Journalism
www.oxpeckers.org
Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR)
www.fairreporters.wordpress.com
Arab Media & Society
www.arabmediasociety.com/environmental-journalism-in-the-uae/
North America
Society for Environmental Journalists
www.sej.org
www.sej.org/library/education-environmental-journalism-programs-and-courses
The National Association of Science Writers
www.nasw.org
NAAEE (2018) ‘Science training and environmental journalism today: Effects of science journalism training for midcareer professionals’
www.naaee.org/eepro/research/library/science-training-and-environmental
Columbia Journalism Review ‘Environmental Journalism? Environmentalism?’
www.archives.cjr.org/behind_the_news/environmental_journalism_envir.php
World Resources Institute
www.wri.org/blog/2013/03/troubling-trends-environmental-journalism
The Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism
www.knightrisser.stanford.edu
John B Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism
www.journalism.columbia.edu/oakes
The Baron
www.thebaron.info/news/article/2017/07/12/reuters-wins-environmental-journalism-award
Green Writers Press
www.greenwriterspress.com
The Future of Science and Environmental Journalism
www.wilsoncenter.org/event/the-future-science-and-environmental-journalism
Black Girls Hike
@BlackGirlsHike
South America
Pulitzer Center (2018) ‘Latin American Media Outlets Call for Increased Climate Reporting’
www.pulitzercenter.org/blog/latin-american-media-outlets-call-increased-climate-reporting
EurekAlert! American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2020) ‘A new cross-border science journalism initiative for Latin America’
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-02/hhmi-anc021020.php
InquireFirst
www.inquirefirst.org
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Latin America
www.ifj.org/where/latin-america-and-the-caribbean/ifj-latin-america.html
Oceania
TheGuardian.com ‘Our wide brown land’
www.theguardian.com/environment/series/our-wide-brown-land
Pacific Media Centre
www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/categories/environmental-journalism
Science Media Centre ‘Who’s reporting science-related issues in New Zealand?’
https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/journos
Global
ICT (2016) ‘The 87 Best Blogs for Treehuggers and Climate Change Warriors’
www.ictcompliance.com/blog/the-87-best-blogs-for-treehuggers-and-climate-change-warriors/
Greenmatch (2019) ‘Top Environmental Bloggers’
www.greenmatch.co.uk/blog/2016/09/top-environmental-influencers-2016
Stephen Leahy
www.stephenleahy.net/
World Federation of Science Journalists
www.wfsj.org
SciDev.Net
www.scidev.net/global/communication/journalism
Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE)
www.asle.org
Reporters without Borders
www.rsf.org/en/news/environmental-journalism-increasingly-hostile-climate
David Roberts (2013) ‘Climate change and environmental journalism’
www.grist.org/climate-energy/climate-change-and-environmental-journalism/
WWF (2009) Environmental journalism and its challenges
wwf.panda.org/?158642%2FEnvironmental-journalism-and-its-challenges
Felix Dodds
www.blog.felixdodds.net/
Minorities in Polar Research
@PolarImpact
Conservation Optimism blog
www.conservationoptimism.org/our-blog
We are all Wonderwomen
www.weareallwonderwomen.com
SEAL (Sustainability, Environmental Achievement & Leadership) Environmental Journalism Awards
www.sealawards.com/environmental-journalism-award-winners/
The Guardian UK (2017) ‘Guardian wins at the 2017 SEAL Environmental Journalism Awards’
www.theguardian.com/gnm-press-office/2017/oct/02/guardian-wins-at-the-seal-2017-environmental-journalism-awards
Earth Journalism Network (EJN)
www.earthjournalism.net
Environmental Journalists
www.environmentaljournalists.org/home
