Writing for Clean Air: Training Journalists in Indore, Jakarta, and Nairobi

Cross posted from USAID Medium

Air pollution causes 8.1 million deaths annually. Of these deaths, 95% occur in low- and middle-income countries, with air pollution-related diseases most prevalent among minorities and marginalized populations.

Despite the consequences of air pollution, the media often under-emphasizes its health effects and rarely provides information on how individuals can mitigate the risks. Vulnerable communities, in particular, receive less information about the harmful effects of air pollution.

Journalists have the power to elevate these topics to increase public awareness and empower civil society with knowledge that can lead to action.

Recognizing this untapped power, USAID’s Clean Air Catalyst (CAC), through a partnership with Earth Journalism Network/Internews, is training local journalists and editors to report more effectively on air pollution in three cities: Indore, India; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Nairobi, Kenya.

So far, workshops have included sessions led by local experts ranging from health specialists to air quality management officers. Participants also take field trips to impacted communities and monitoring sites, and participate in sessions on air quality story development.

Alumni of CAC’s workshops have published more than 130 (and counting!) news stories and videos to raise awareness about air pollution.

“Even though awareness of air pollution is rising among environment and health journalists, significant gaps remain between scientific evidence and reporters’ awareness of health risks and vulnerabilities,” explains Joyce Chimbi, a senior journalist in Kenya who attended a training and published a story about air pollution and school children with a grant from CAC.

“The highly interactive training sessions enabled us to interrogate what we knew about air pollution, bursting pervasive myths and misconceptions around urban air pollution that we have long held as facts. Ultimately, we managed to shift our focus to the most underreported issues around urban air pollution and its short-long term debilitating effects on our communities.”

Here are some other things journalists tell us they learned from the workshops — and are sharing with their audiences and followers.

1. An award-winning “clean” city can still have air pollution.

As India is home to some of the world’s most polluted cities, enhancing journalists’ ability to report on air quality is crucial to inform the public of safety and health measures. Initially, the 19 journalists from Indore, India were skeptical that their city had air pollution problems, as it was awarded the “cleanest” city in India seven years running thanks to its trash-free streets. Throughout the three-day workshop, local officials and health experts explained how even a trash-free city can have polluted air, and that it is actually getting worse.

With a drive to share this new knowledge, participating journalists went on to publish 63 stories about air pollution and its health effects in Indore. Their stories ranged from detailing the harm of dirty cookstoves, to explaining why a waste-free city still needs to act to improve air quality. One article about the harm of the air pollution from a cement factory in a residential neighborhood even led to a local outcry and implementation of several pollution control measures by the government.

2. Air pollution is more than a political problem.

Unlike in Indore, the residents of Jakarta, Indonesia recognize that the air they breathe is polluted. However, air quality is a politically-charged topic, and prior to the workshop, local reporting typically focused on “who is to blame” — often identifying coal dust blown in from other provinces as the root cause of the problem. The 26 journalists who participated in the CAC workshop learned that Jakarta’s air pollution also stems from sources under individuals’ control — such as increased vehicle traffic — and that air pollution has economic, business, health, gender, and technology connections.

The 19 stories they wrote after the workshop were apolitical and covered a wide range of topics, including air pollution’s health effects on vulnerable groups (such as infants, elderly, transgender, and immunodeficient populations).

3. Air quality information is not too complex for day-to-day reporting.

In Nairobi, Kenya, air pollution is more than double the World Health Organization’s recommended level. And it is rising as population, industrialization, traffic, and deforestation increase.

Local media, however, rarely shared stories about the causes, impacts, and reality of Nairobi’s air quality because the topic seemed like “a science story” for a niche audience. The 61 journalists and 18 editors trained at CAC’s media workshops learned about the gendered health impacts of air pollution, data that’s freely available, and potential benefits of greater public awareness around air pollution.

Now equipped to translate air quality metrics into stories that could motivate their readers to care about air quality, these journalists and editors have begun to make vital information accessible to Nairobi’s residents. So far, their 50 stories have covered topics from revealing the impacts of air pollution in a bustling market to calling for green mobility solutions to tackle air pollution.

The CAC-trained journalists and editors continue to be clean air champions in their cities, producing stories that make the dangers of air pollution clear and spur actions to mitigate it.

Importantly, with the knowledge they gained from the workshops, many of the journalists have gone on to cover the disproportionate impact of air pollution on women. Other stories, so far, have covered air pollution’s effects on children and reporting on the impact of air pollution on people with autoimmune diseases.

And, most importantly, they are still writing.

---

About the Author

Piper O’Keefe is a Presidential Management Fellow in USAID’s Center for Energy, Infrastructure, and Cities.