Effects of Climate Change on Society: An Analysis of Role of Pakistani Media

Abstract

Climate change is not the problem of one country; it’s a global issue. In today’s modern world, especially South Asian countries like Pakistan are facing the most sensitive issue of climate change. The climate change has diverse effects on society. The public awareness is necessary regarding the impact of climate change on society. In the modern era, media is one of the most important tools to educate the people on any issue. Due to the importance of media, this study investigates the role of media in covering the climate change issue and its effects on society. For this purpose, the researcher collected the data from environmental journalists through the purposive sampling technique. The result of the study shows that the media is not giving importance to climate change or environmental issues in their coverage. The result also shows the diverse obstacles that journalists encounter while covering climate change, ranging from organizational limitations to audience involvement. Media coverage on political issues is high, but on the other hand, media coverage on environmental issues is less. Given the sensitivity of the issue, the media needs to educate people about the impact of climate change on society. The study suggested that the media needs to change its coverage priorities and give more space or coverage to environmental issues to reduce this gap.