Building Climate Reporting Confidence: Texas

Newsrooms across Texas will never forget February’s devastating winter storm and the many sacrifices journalists made to keep the critical information flowing.

Scientists are still exploring what role climate change played in our winter storm. But we do know this: climate change is already bringing Texas more extreme coastal storms and heat waves that are increasingly expensive to recover from.

And if you zoom out, changing climate intersects with so many beats a newsroom covers, like transportation, energy, social justice, tourism, sports, weather, agriculture and quality of life in general. But the truth is, many local journalists don’t have enough training to report on climate with confidence and fold climate change into the stories they produce on a daily basis.

Now we have an opportunity to change that.

WFAA-TV Dallas, Covering Climate Now and Climate Matters in the Newsroom are co-hosting a statewide training webinar on April 7, 2021 from 1-2:30pm CDT/2-3:30pm EDT for those who are relatively new to the climate story. Journalists will get resources and story ideas, an intro to climate science, and an opportunity to talk shop with reporters from the area.

Our panel of experienced journalists will share their testimony on how they got up to speed on the climate issue, challenges they've faced in reporting and ideas on how to tell localized, human-centered stories that will engage audiences. We’ll flag common mistakes and best practices to emulate. And there will be plenty of time for Q&A.

RSVP here. This event is for journalists only.

PANELISTS

• Katharine Hayhoe, Climate Scientist at Texas Tech Climate Center
• Dianna Hunt, Senior Editor at Indian Country Today
• Lise Olsen, Investigations Editor at Texas Observer
• David Schechter, Reporter, Host and Co-Producer of Verify Road Trip at WFAA, Dallas

Mark Hertsgaard, CCNow’s executive director and the environment correspondent for The Nation and Bernadette Woods Placky, Climate Central Chief Meteorologist, Climate Matters Director will co-moderate.

DATE / TIME via Zoom: April 7, 2021, 1:00 - 2:30 Central Time  

QUESTIONS: Please email symone@coveringclimatenow.org.

This event is co-sponsored by WFAA, Covering Climate Now and Climate Matters in the Newsroom.

WFAA is owned and operated by TEGNA Inc., an innovative media company that serves the greater good of its communities. WFAA has led the charge in innovation in all forms of media: first television station located in Dallas, first to break the news of the JFK Assassination, first station to use a helicopter, first in the nation to unveil a computerized local newsroom and first website in DFW television station.

Covering Climate Now is a global journalism initiative committed to strengthening coverage of the defining story of our time. Our partners include over 400 news outlets with a combined audience approaching 2 billion people.

Climate Matters in the Newsroom is a climate reporting resource program that helps meteorologists and journalists report on climate impacts and solutions in ways that are local, immediate, and personal — grounded in the latest science.