environmental journalism?

A few months back, I saw a very young girl in qingqi with awful itchy sports on her hands that had septic which would make you feel bizarre. She was not wearing shoes which made me overwhelmed a little more than before. Eventually, I asked her old father to at least make her wear shoes.

He simply said that her spots would burst. His words made me ask him the reason for her itchy spots and he explained the whole cause that could be summed up in two words – “urban flooding.”

The awful rain in Karachi may have not affected people like me who have well-built homes in posh areas with all the basics – the privileges in our city, but it became the reason for chaos for 15 billion people and that daughter and father were two of them.

However, there are numerous stories we would find about the effect of the

environment on people. Recently, my friend and I shot a documentary, Karachi Begums, at Ghazdarabad where we found families sitting outside their homes most of the time. The reason was load shedding and heat. That’s the other story I got about the environment, yet you could not find such coverage on the internet and environment on people. Recently, my friend and I shot a documentary, Karachi Begums, at Ghazdarabad where we found families sitting outside their homes most of the time. The reason was load shedding and heat. That’s the other story I got about the environment, yet you could not find such coverage on the internet and television – why?
We have universities with established media schools, having specialization in journalism, and mass communication, but still, it is visible the environmental beat is not given importance. As per Rabia Qusien and David Robbins, when comparing English and Urdu papers, you would find environmental news more in English ones than in Urdu papers as the second one is more focused on sensationalism and English journalists are more informed about terminologies.
To find the root cause of poor environmental journalism, Saqib Tanveer, a journalist and social media editor at Independent Urdu, and Syed Muhammad Abbas Rizvi, lecturer and researcher at the Department of Mass Communication in the University of Karachi were interviewed.
At the beginning of the interview, the academia and practitioner were asked why environmental journalism is not taught in universities and media schools and the two agreed that it needs to be a specialized program within journalism. While answering this question, Saqib shed light on the limited universities that either offer specialization in mass communication or journalism due to which we have no proper specialization in even economy or political reporting. However, Abbas explained that at Bachelor’s level, it is required to have a subject of environmental reporting to help students know about it.
To dig deep down into the topic, they were inquired about the problems teachers face in teaching climate change in media schools. Upon which Saqib pointed out that “a very low amount of data or research is done in Pakistan on this subject.” He explained that “our curricula are designed and derived from the West, which several students would find hard to relate with. For example, the issue of smog is still a mystery for Lahore” until recently, the Air Quality Index meters were installed not by the US embassy.
Meanwhile, Abbas highlighted the need for teachers who are specialized in environmental reporting. He further explained how “overly abused lifestyle, infrastructure and amenities” made people focus less on the environment than on inflation and other problems.
Abbas and Saqib’s answers made me further ask them about the tips and techniques we can use to promote environmental journalism in our media schools, to which Saqib simply said “job market.” He explained that “if the market starts asking for graduates with specialisation in climate change, then the universities would follow suit,” and gave

the example of a boom in chartered accounts in the 2000s because of their rising demand.

While Abbas explained the need to incorporate hands-on experiences in media schools to create a platform for students where they could realize the impact of the environment on their lives.

The last question about the curriculum of environmental reporting was asked to Abbas because of his academic role on which he accepted the unfortunate reality that the environmental journalism topics are not much present in the syllabus as social issues and politics are covered.

Pakistan is a developing country with a below-average literacy rate and a huge ratio of stunted growth in kids. Therefore, expecting people to read about the environment is foolishness when the inflation and petrol prices hike have crippled the large population of the state. However, academia and veterans are trying to bring light to recent phenomena with their efforts by giving importance to having specializations within journalism and making it as vast as it is around the world.