In January 2020, Associated Press published a photo of four young European climate activists at the World Economic Forum in Davos. A wave of indignation ensued, quickly prompting the news agency to correct its piece, when a shocking revelation was made: the original photo was not of four, but of five girls standing side by side. Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate was cropped out of the photo, and no mention of her could be found in the text that came with it. The most striking difference between Nakate and the other girls? She is African, and black.

^{Vanessa Nakate, Luisa Neubauer, Greta Thunberg, Isabelle Axelsson and Loukina Tille, from left, in Davos. Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP}

This startling event constitutes a clear example of the power that the media hold in shaping dominant perceptions of the climate crisis and of the people and groups involved in global climate conversations; ultimately, their role as gatekeepers effectively determines whose faces we see and whose voices we hear. As such, it invites a critical reflection on the way mainstream media coverage of climate change represents a system of inclusion and exclusion in itself, closely associated with dynamics of power and hegemony in contemporary societies. In fact, while it is people in the Global South who will bear (and are already bearing) the greatest brunt of the climate crisis, they tend to be continuously excluded from international climate debates and decision-making processes. Indeed, areas of the planet that are most exposed to the impacts of this crisis are usually found in the peripheries and consequently geopolitically removed from centres of power in media and politics. Taking into account that mass media are the most important sources of information about climate change that people resort to, it becomes especially relevant to understand the way they – particularly mainstream media – have been (mis)framing this crisis, and the range of actors that populate these media representations.

Media’s role as potential producers of reality; the fact that they are both significant arenas and agents in the production, reproduction or contestation of the meanings of social issues like climate change; and the way they authorise and amplify particular voices, therefore lending both social credibility and authority to specific actors and their arguments – means that they can either perpetuate or help to dismantle dominant narratives in the capitalist, colonialist, patriarchal and anthropocentric systems – as it has been widely discussed. Mainstream media coverage of the climate crisis tends to focus on high-profile intergovernmental meetings such as the COPs, where international climate politics is debated by political and scientific elites that are predominantly Western and male. This is, in part, a reflection of the fact that, as Araújo and Santos argue, – despite their universality – mainstream media have evolved along the axis of Western modernity and its meta-narratives of progress, science and technology, hence presenting a biased and partial picture of the world that recognises only specific actors and forms of knowledge. Accordingly, to look at media representations of the climate crisis through the lens of the Epistemologies of the South can thus help us to see how, in this domain as well, there seems to exist a metaphorical abyssal line separating the North from the South and treating the “other side” as more than irrelevant; as non-existent.

As a result of this, mainstream (Western) media perpetuate a double tendency of silencing and rendering invisible certain groups and individuals. Firstly, Indigenous, non-Western people are typically left outside the formal structure of international climate negotiations, meaning that their voices are silenced from most climate-related media stories. When they do appear, they are mostly portrayed as an exotic symbol of the urgency of the climate crisis, as passive subjects instead of as active agents. Secondly, this marginalisation of stakeholders and actors also has an important gendered dimension, due to an “over-representation” of male bodies, both in intergovernmental institutions (e.g. the UNFCCC), and among political leaders. The categories of “leadership” and “expertise” when it comes to climate change solutions are consequently mainly filled by Western, white, and male bodies and voices, which is closely connected to the fact that the climate crisis is most often portrayed as a scientific problem requiring scientific and technological solutions. This techno-scientific focus means that the social impacts of climate change tend to be undervalued or ignored, with less attention being paid to the issues that women and non-Western, Indigenous peoples traditionally organise around (e.g. environmental health; habitats; livelihoods).

This focus also means that non-Western and female knowledge about the crisis is typically seen as less advanced, less valid, or plainly disregarded – even though Indigenous peoples have for a long time maintained a mode of relationship with non-human nature that has historically been more sustainable than the one practiced by most Western societies; and that women have historically been the keepers of valuable environmental knowledge. The media’s “crucial responsibility as a source of information and opinions about science and technology for citizens” again means that they have a particular power to shape dominant perceptions of what constitutes knowledge in this domain. As stated by Indigenous scientist Kalamaoka’aina Niheu, “even among progressives and academics, the rationale behind the revitalization of indigenous science has sometimes been relegated to a quasi-mystical condescension”. She therefore challenges the idea that Indigenous spirituality is “not based on keen observation equally valid as Western science”, and calls for the rise of the Indigenous scientist.

The abyssal line separating Western media from non-Western media through the filter of technology – defining the first as that which is technological, modern, rational, efficient; and the latter as that which is exotic, superstitious, archaic and inefficient –  is similar to the line separating Western and non-Western knowledge on climate change [1]. Here again we can see the usefulness of resorting to the lens of the Epistemologies of the South as processes that can help recover and value different forms of knowledge and alternative ways of engaging with the world, based on the practices and narratives of the social groups that simultaneously suffer and resist the oppressions caused by capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy and anthropocentrism. If the mainstream media keep producing narratives that render non-Western, non-male faces invisible, and that silence non-Western, non-male voices on the topic of climate change, they are active promoters of climate and social injustice. To overcome the abyssal line in media representations of the climate crisis means to seek other faces and voices, testimonies and experiences; to refuse to follow a “linear and monocultural narrative” and to expand political imagination far beyond the West, making it possible to imagine the future through the eyes and narratives of the historically excluded.

Nevertheless, media can also play a positive and potentially emancipatory role as content producers. Indigenous communities in Latin America, for example, are resorting to online media to draw attention to environmental destruction in their homelands (through platforms like Rádio Yandé or organisations such as Amazon Frontlines). The emancipatory potential of the media regards the fact that, in a way, anybody can be a content producer these days, by simply picking up a camera. A good example is Kynan Tegar, the fifteen-year-old Indonesian filmmaker whose environmental and climate activism is done through photography and videography. Critical, alternative, independent and Indigenous media therefore hold the power to tell different stories and to show different faces and voices. Of course, if the circuits of media production are controlled by hegemonic media elites, independent content is most likely going to face serious obstacles in trying to reach wider audiences. That is why it is also a responsibility of media audiences to search for alternative content that does not serve the political and economic interests of the elites standing behind the climate crisis.

[1] An article further exploring this topic and co-authored by Alexandre de Sousa Carvalho, Sofia José Santos and myself will soon be published on Commons. Revista de Comunicación y Ciudadanía Digital.

Carlota Houart holds a degree in International Relations and an MA in International Relations - Peace, Security and Development Studies by the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra. She is a junior researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, as part of the NHUMEP Peace Studies Group, within the project DeCode/M: "(De)Coding Masculinities: Towards an enhanced understanding of media's role in shaping perceptions of masculinities in Portugal". Her current research interests include: International Relations, peace and conflict studies; gender studies with a focus on masculinities; media studies; and environment and climate change.