Resilience-Focused Approach: Exploring Practices of Pakistani Journalists in Covering Flood Risk

Abstract

Climate change is a global risk since its origins and consequences transcend national boundaries. Non-Western media has also begun to recognise climate change as a significant issue that must be addressed. Despite its nominal national emissions and accounting for only 0.50% of global emissions, Pakistan is facing particularly severe consequences from disasters, floods, droughts, rising temperatures, cyclones, and rising sea levels as a result of global emissions. (Worldometers, 2023). Pakistan has been deemed at high risk of catastrophic climate events such as floods, storms, melting glaciers, landslides, rising sea levels, droughts, and food shortages by the World Bank. To avoid these impending tragedies, climate change supporters have emphasised the use of media for mass awareness, both at the policy and public levels. This study examines resilience-focused journalism in flood risk coverage in a climate-affected country like Pakistan. Journalists covering weather-related topics were questioned in order to investigate resilience-focused journalism practices based on motivation, techniques, and the impact of prominent news channels' coverage of flood risk. This study investigates the motivations, tactics, and impact of media coverage of flood risk in Pakistan, and it adds to our understanding of risk communication and news production practices by focusing on why and how broadcast journalists were unable to communicate flooding risks and influence policy change. The data was evaluated using thematic analysis after semi-structured in-depth interviews were done.