On the 17th of March, OSLOMET/JMIC partner and MediaClimate member Ranjan Panda from Aaina & #Youth4WaterIndia campaign in India organized an orientation for Journalism & Mass Communication students and young journalists in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dhenkanal, in Odisha, India. Under the theme “Climate Change & Human Mobility” 85 students and faculty members from within the IIMC campus participated. More than 30 participants joined online from across the country.
The programme was coordinated by Ranjan Panda. Prof. Mrinal Chhatterjee, Director of IIMC, in his inaugural speech called for both macro-level & micro-level actions to combat climate change. Reviving local water bodies could help us a lot in adaptation efforts.
Mr. Ranjan Panda introduced the topic and initiative to the participants and said human mobility can be broadly categorized into ‘aspirational’ and ‘forceful’. Climate crisis makes many people forcefully displaced. Ill-planned relocation can trigger multiple displacement and further migration. We need to report all these to aid policy making, he said.
Mr. Richard Mahapatra, senior environmental journalist and Editor of Down To Earth magazine, gave the keynote presentation and talked extensively on the links between climate change and migration: “Migration is the global story to be told through local characters. Climate related success stories are the best to tell from local areas: these are migration mitigation stories”, he said.
Prof Elisabeth Eide of Oslo Met joined online and said, while many youth movements/leaders have successfully emerged as ambassadors of science, the media space seems to have moved more into commercialization. In a process where journalism is downsized, proper attention to the climate crisis, is needed, plus emphasis on links between people’s livelihood experiences and the climate science.
The participants then interacted with the resource persons and the programme concluded with a resolve to stay in touch and continue the dialogue.
