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Best Practices

Audience Development

Engage With Local Communities To Strengthen Climate Journalism

Wednesday, September 10, 2025
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM CDT
Area of Focus: Climate
Coverage in the US often fails to highlight impacted communities in the broader context of the climate crisis, or overutilizes false narratives of victimhood and despair.  Effective community engagement ensures those affected are defining the challenges they face, while sometimes also educating and empowering the broader public by showcasing how problems are already being addressed through creative solutions those communities have pioneered.

Using concrete examples and a wide breadth of experience, this panel will explore how NOLA-based journalists have found innovative and replicable ways to engage local communities in the reporting process, looking to their input to shape editorial priorities and stories. Building off of the Climate Blueprint for Media Transformation, this session aims to generate practical tips and tools that will help newsrooms and individual journalists move toward meaningful engagement.