Localizing information to motivate community action

Panos London supports journalists 'translating' climate change summits for local contexts, helping make climate change information much more actionable for communities.

The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy writes,

Panos London, in collaboration with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) through their Climate Change Media Partnership, supports journalists from the Global South to attend and report from major climate change summits. These reporters use a variety of media including community radio, newspapers, tape recordings, and storytelling to reach their home audiences and communicate climate policy and science in an understandable manner. Since the content is locally-produced, it is more likely to mobilise action than generic broadcasts issued by developed country media outlets. Only when this information becomes available, which it has not, will communities learn about the potential risks they face and act to minimise them.

Implications

This is an example of how ICT can strengthen relationships and information flows between policy-makers and local communities.

LKYSPP writes,

While the transformation and increasing dependence on ICTs can be seen as a deepening and widening of how information is transferred, the real innovation in this recent wave of ICT "democratisation" is the bi-directionality of these information flows. Whereas traditionally dominant information services like TV and radio adopt a top-down model, the penetration of personal devices and network connectivity has created ripe opportunities for compiling data and experiences from disparate grassroots sources. This change will be revelatory in promoting climate change adaptation.