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Learn To Cover Climate and Combat Disinformation! For Free! [1]
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Date: 2022-07-22
Why yes, we are shamelessly and lazily plugging something cool today instead of covering something stupid!
How much would you pay to learn about climate reporting and combating disinformation from a former New York Times journalist?
How about nothing?
That's how much it'll cost you to take a month-long online course from John Schwartz , former NYT science writer and current UT-Austin journalism professor, who said that “there is no beat that doesn’t have a climate angle today."
No matter what kind of journalism you may be into, like it or not, you're also on the climate beat. "If you’re a business journalist, you have to understand what companies are doing," Schwartz said in a press release. "If you’re a social justice journalist, you have to understand the equity issues that are involved in climate change. A food reporter needs to know how climate is affecting the crops that reach our table.”
That means, he continued, that "reporters need to have familiarity, at least with the basics, to be able to tackle the issues as they come into their beat, without fear."
And "without fear" is where the disinformation comes in. Alongside three modules on the basics of climate science and how to report on it, the course promises that "students will learn how to identify disinformation about climate change and how to counter it."
Per Schwartz, “anyone who writes about climate change can expect to get pushback from people who don't accept the scientific evidence and who both infect disinformation and who feed it back to you. When you write about climate, you can expect a fight. And so understanding the tools of disinformation, understanding not just why climate change is happening and what it is, but also being able to analyze the arguments of people who come at you, is very important and understanding the history of disinformation and being able to put that in the context of what the world has been through."
While it will cost all of $30 if you want to get a certificate of completion to mark your graduation of sorts, the knowledge itself is free, and you can also take the course in Spanish or Portuguese. "We are also lucky to count on assistant instructors with Meghie Rodrigues, from Brazil, and Emiliano Rodríguez Mega, from Mexico," said Rosental Alves, founder of the Knight Center for Journalism that's hosting the course, "both science journalists who have covered climate change issues in their countries.” And that may prove to be the most vital aspect, as non-English disinformation efforts become increasingly commonplace.
Not that there isn't still plenty of English climate disinformation. But hopefully after this training from August to September, there will be a bunch more climate disinformation reporters, too!
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/22/2111912/-Learn-To-Cover-Climate-and-Combat-Disinformation-For-Free
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