Communicating Climate Change in Africa: Role Perception and Role Shifting among Environmental Journalists in Nigeria

The environmental beat in Nigeria, as in most African nations, is primarily covered by general assignment reporters. The role conception and perception of journalists who cover the environment and strive to communicate climate change issues continually fluctuate as they navigate the tension. To enhance our understanding of how journalists communicate climate change in Nigeria, we conducted a survey of journalists who occasionally cover environmental stories and identify as environmental journalists (N = 50) across various platforms, including print, broadcast, and digital media. Our findings show that environmental journalists in Nigeria use a combination of traditional news reporting techniques, feature writing, and solution-oriented journalism. Journalists utilize visual aids and storytelling to captivate their audiences, believing that their reporting influences public responses or drives policy changes. The use of visual storytelling and advocacy-oriented narratives reflects framing strategies that could make climate change more relatable and actionable. This study asserts that Nigerian environmental journalists, motivated by a duty to inform and inspire action on climate change, employ a hybrid reporting approach that combines advocacy and fact-based dissemination. Nigerian environmental journalists act as mediators, translating and amplifying local environmental knowledge into public discourse by intentionally balancing objectivity with advocacy.