The Sustainability of Green Journalism | Nov 7th at 9:13pm
The closing plenary session for day 1 of this conference had a full roster of interesting, articulate people, mostly writers focused on communication about urban design and/or climate change. It was soothing to imagine that many such newspapers, magazines, and other outlets had the budget and sensibility to have folks like these on their staffs.
Which I gather that is not the case, which raises the issue not only of how journalists can communicate with their readers and their editors, but whether they even have the time to pay any real attention at all to substantive issues of urban development. Most particularly when the issue is nuanced in its explanation, and murky in its implications for policy and implementation. Like, say, oh I don’t know, this one.
My favorite personal example is when I got a call from the LATimes last November, which I picked up running late to a meeting because I thought it concerned that meeting. I explained I would have to call back. “That’s ok, I really just have a quick question.” Ok, shoot. “What should we do about the nightmare that we call traffic in Los Angeles?” Um, that’s going to take more time than I have right now. “Ok, I’ll make it really quick. The mayor and governor announced a $100 million dollar program today to synchronize traffic signals in Los Angeles. Do you think that will solve the nightmare we call traffic in Los Angeles?” Um, no. (And that was my quote in the next day’s paper.)
I am quite glad to see print and electronic media with seasoned, informed “urban policy” reporters and analysts, but I worry this is far from representative. And I don’t know who to blame. Certainly the LATimes reporter was a real pro. It’s not his attention span, I would venture to guess, so much as his deadline schedule.
And we expect the press to educate us—and our constituents in elected office, the professions and the neighborhood—about how to design cities to mitigate and adapt to climate change?
One argument is that we need to make this issue more pressing for editors, publishers and readers alike. Without crying wolf or losing credibility some other way.
Randy Crane (PhD, MIT) is professor and vice-chair of urban planning in the UCLA School of Public Affairs, an associate editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association, and coeditor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Urban Planning.
