Up for a Challenge — Fifty Environmental Journalists on the Profession and Its Future

Indiana University senior Mikayla Owens is majoring in media with a minor in environmental management in pursuit of a career in environmental reporting. Photo: Ben Meraz, The Media School at Indiana University.

EJ Academy: Up for a Challenge — Fifty Environmental Journalists on the Profession and Its Future

By Suzannah Evans Comfort

Over the last several years, I’ve spent many hours examining the emergence of the environment as a newsworthy topic. Earlier this year, I spoke with 50 environmental journalists to reveal a more nuanced understanding of the environmental journalism profession.

These journalists ranged in experience from just starting out to the brink of retirement, as well as a few who have left the profession. They included freelancers and staffers at all types of news organizations: commercial newspapers, magazines, television stations, online publications, public radio and TV, nonprofit startups and advocacy publications.

I offered everyone anonymity so they could speak frankly, as well as a $100 Amazon gift card in exchange for their time (a typical incentive in academic research).

These interviews are informing my in-progress book on environmental journalism as a news priority. I’ve summarized a few of the most notable themes that emerged from my conversations.

1. Environmental journalists don’t always look like a stereotypical journalist
Many enter the field from a science or policy background rather than starting out as a cub reporter or earning a J-school degree.

Often, it’s a professional master’s degree in science or environmental journalism that eases the transition into writing as a career.

 

Many environmental journalists

write books, produce documentaries,

start their own Substack or

otherwise blaze an independent trail.

 

Many environmental journalists never work for a news organization. They write books, produce documentaries, start their own Substack or otherwise blaze an independent trail in the journalism field.

At the same time, there are plenty of environmental journalists who entered the field through a traditional route and work for established news organizations.

2. Many environmental journalists have complex relationships to norms and practices of traditional American-style journalism
It is hardly just environmental journalists who are grappling with the effects of practices like both-sidesism and reporting that privileges the perspective of elites and institutions at the cost of disenfranchised groups. This conversation has been on trend since the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.

Author Suzannah Evans Comfort.

But environmental journalists have been engaged in this discussion for much longer, given the decades-long struggles over covering climate change and environmental justice issues that intersect with race and class.

Combined with the fact that many environmental journalists don’t have journalism degrees and/or work outside the confines of a typical newsroom, there is more acceptance in environmental journalism circles for nontraditional approaches to journalism practice.

For example, younger journalists, freelancers and journalists of color were likely to express interest in justice- or community-engaged journalism that worked with disadvantaged populations to advance their interests.

3. Environmental journalism is a calling for intrepid people who will find creative routes within the field
Of the 50 people I interviewed, only four had accidentally become environmental journalists. Everyone else either sought environmental journalism positions or found ways to sneak environmental reporting into their newsrooms without the support of their editors.

Journalists who started their careers in the 1970s and 1980s told stories about convincing their editors that environmental issues were newsworthy. Many worked on environmental projects on their own time.

News priority shifts can be fickle; something as simple as a reorganization resulting in a more sympathetic editor, or an ownership change introducing a distant executive who cared about the environment, could mean more opportunities for pursuing environmental stories.

 

For decades, environmental journalists have

had to work to legitimize their beat as

just as important as crime, politics and

other bread-and-butter news topics.

 

Even times of largesse for news organizations were no guarantee that environmental issues would be prioritized. For decades, environmental journalists have had to work to legitimize their beat as just as important as crime, politics and other bread-and-butter news topics.

The current economic uncertainty in the news industry introduces more complexity, but advocating for coverage of environmental issues is nothing new. As a result, environmental journalists of all levels of experience are tenacious, independent types who will fight to report environmental news against all odds.

4. The fabric of environmental journalism is more extensive than you might think, but it is thin and at risk of rupturing
We are essentially relying on the good faith of these industrious journalists who won’t take no for an answer when it comes to providing ongoing coverage of the environment.

We may be in a moment of expansion for environmental newsmaking as major newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and others establish robust climate reporting teams. However, if history is any guide, we can expect that news organizations will continue to pivot to the latest newsy trend, and the continual decline of staff positions will make the number of people who are present to advocate for environmental coverage dwindle even further.

Nonprofit and niche news organizations that focus on environmental issues can fill some of the gap, but the reach of these publications is significantly narrower than generalist state or national news media organizations.

Whether foundations will continue to fund environmental journalism at the present level is a major concern of journalists working at nonprofits, but as several noted, economic turmoil is an accepted feature of any job in news at this point.

Meanwhile, many freelancers piece together a career through a combination of journalism and non-journalism jobs and/or rely on the support of family.

5. The stress and uncertainty of environmental journalism takes a significant mental health toll
It takes a certain type of person to pursue a career in a highly volatile industry to cover one of the most depressing topics possible.

Environmental journalists tend to have a personal drive to work in a career that aligns with their values, and that’s what they say makes the struggles worth it. They also try to find ways to report on the environment beyond the doom-and-gloom stories that are the low-hanging fruit of the field.

Still, burnout and economic stress are real threats to the vitality of the beat.

Remote newsrooms have amplified feelings of isolation and lack of support.

Journalists of color, freelancers and those with working-class backgrounds especially expressed concerns about their ability to continue their work.

 

Economic stability, as well as genuine efforts to

build a culture of inclusion and belonging,

will be vital to attracting, and keeping,

the best talent on the environmental beat.

 

Economic stability, as well as genuine efforts to build a culture of inclusion and belonging, will be vital to attracting, and keeping, the best talent on the environmental beat.

Both news organizations and professional associations have a role to play here. For freelancers, groups like SEJ and The Uproot Project may provide the only structured community these journalists can access, but membership fees and requirements can be a barrier to participation.

6. Environmental journalists have always been tenacious, creative and industrious
Fifty interviews can’t capture an entire field of work, but in general, these themes align with what I’ve been hearing in dozens of other conversations with environmental journalists over the last several years.

It should be noted that my area of expertise is U.S. journalism; I included a few non-U.S. journalists but cannot claim that this project adequately captures the perspective of journalists around the world. And it’s likely that there is a survivorship bias in my sample, even though it did include some journalists who had left the field.

What emerged as the most notable theme, to me, was the dogged nature of environmental journalists.

Even during the bygone days when American newspapers were practically printing money, environmental journalists were fighting to legitimize the beat as significant and worthwhile of investment from the news organization and respect from their peers.

Their battle continues today even as news organizations face much reduced circumstances. And in spite of all this, there is a surfeit of passion for championing environmental newsmaking.

The good news is that we have no shortage of talented journalists ready to produce rigorous, perceptive and fair environmental journalism. The challenge will be finding places for that energy to go, whether it’s commercial or nonprofit newsrooms, individual Substacks, books or otherwise.

Environmental journalists have been creative and industrious ever since the environment became a top news priority in the 1960s; they will have to be more so in the years to come.

News organizations, foundations and professional associations like SEJ and The Uproot Project will have to step up to locate the resources environmental journalists need to continue their work.

 

What makes environmental journalists distinct?

These initial findings are part of my broader book project, which examines the emergence of the environment as a newsworthy topic in the early 20th century through the uncertain landscape of today.

One question I’m still examining is to what degree environmental journalists are distinct from the average journalist.

The last project to examine this question is more than 20 years old; long overdue for an update.

Those scholars found that environmental journalists resembled average journalists with a few notable exceptions: they were lower paid, more likely to be white and less likely to feel in control over story choice. However, that project only included environmental journalists working for commercial newspapers and television stations.

I’d wager that today’s cohort of environmental journalists would express a greater divergence of experiences and perspectives from the average journalist that reflects their more diverse backgrounds and work environments. But it remains, as scholars like to say, an open question.

I’m always interested in hearing journalists’ perspectives as I work on this project. Have something to add? Please reach out to me at comfort@iu.edu.

Suzannah Evans Comfort, Ph.D., is an associate professor of journalism at Indiana University. Her research examines the sociology of environmental journalism from the early 20th century to today. She also teaches courses on media literacy, ethics and science and environmental journalism.

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 9, No. 29. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.