OneWorld "expands the journalism landscape" via live coverage

A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Journalism, has found that OneWorld's live coverage of the UN Climate Talks is more comprehensive and innovative than that offered by mainstream news outlets.

OneWorld has provided live and interactive video coverage of the UN Climate Talks via its 'OneClimate Channel' since the 13th UN Conference of Parties (COP13) meeting in Bali in 2007. In 2009, more than 2 million viewers tuned in over 4 million times to watch our live coverage of the conference in Copehagen - and major news outlets including Le Monde embedded the live video on their websites. The study found that:

"During the 2011 UN Climate Summit in Durban, OneClimate continued to outdo traditional media in terms of the comprehensiveness of coverage and the innovative use of various streams of content. Live and just-recorded interviews were combined with around-the-clock news, analysis, audio/video and social media with summit participants and global publics throughout the event."

"Unlike USA Today and the New York Times, NGO coverage was exhaustive and included the actions and comments of high-profile international and national officials, scientists, civil society, and locally focused grassroots groups. In fact the news flows from activist and social media outlets were so much more robust and dynamic than legacy journalism coverage that even the New York Times referred its readers to Twitter for 'the best way to track the finale and afterthoughts'".

As well as being more comprehensive, the study observed that OneWorld's interactive interviews, which allow people from around the world to put their questions to delegates live on air, have the effect of "opening up the discourse, going beyond their own specific climate agenda or the agenda of climate justice movement leaders".

Kelly Rigg, Executive Director of the Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA), which has supported OneWorld to provide live coverage of the UN Climate Talks since 2009, said "It's a great validation of our efforts to overcome the failure of traditional media in this space."

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Read the full article: Innovation in Hybrid Spaces: 2011 U.N. Climate Summit and the Expanding Journalism Landscape

Over the past month, OneWorld's webcasting team have provided live coverage for events in Santiago, Chile; San Francisco, USA; Johannesburg, South Africa; and Dhaka, Bangladesh; supporting the work of IIED, Jhpiego, CDKN and YthLive. To learn more about OneWorld's webcasting services download our information pack, or contact adam.groves [AT] oneworld.org