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Columbia Journalism Review content tagged risk

1. November 20, 2012 12:15 PM

   Highway to the danger zone

   Following Sandy, HuffPo and NYT dig into the folly of coastal development

   By Curtis Brainard

   Hurricane Sandy renewed the media’s interest in the many foolish ways that we increase our vulnerability to extreme weather. There’s climate change, of course. That came up right away. But carbon pollution isn’t the only, or even the most immediate, thing that we’re doing to imperil ourselves. There’s also relentless, right-up-to-the-water’s-edge-in-a-floodplain coastal development. After focusing on global warming in the...

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2. March 11, 2011 04:12 PM

   Risk Reporting 101

   What journalists should know about hazards and exposure

   By David Ropeik

   During my years as a daily TV journalist in Boston, I covered a seemingly endless string of risks: from the run-of the mill threats like car crashes and plane crashes and fires and crime, to artificial sweeteners (yes, I’m that old) and air bags and silicone breast implants and the “new” epidemic of child abductions, to a depressingly rich litany...

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3. April 5, 2011 02:56 PM

   The Climate Context in Japan

   Crisis tests media’s ability to frame nuclear debate in a world beset by energy risks

   By James Fahn

   When I was a young journalist working as the environment editor for a Thai newspaper back in the 1990s, one of the first things I learned was this: In order to cover the environment, you have to understand the energy sector—not just what it emits, but the politics, economics, and technical issues surrounding it. And vice versa: Those reporting on...

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4. November 30, 2010 03:30 PM

   The Risk of Poor Coverage of Risk

   Why does a healthier-than-ever world feel so scary?

   By David Ropeik

   There is a hidden danger in this modern world of unprecedented plenty and healthier, longer lives: our growing fears about the modern technologies that make our longer and healthier lives possible. There are indeed real risks that accompany the benefits of industrial chemistry, mass agriculture, nuclear power, etc. But the news media tend to report those risks in a way...

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