Challenges and Gaps in Climate Change Journalism in South Asia: Analyzing Media Coverage, Public Awareness, and Policy Implications

Climate change poses a critical challenge to South Asia, a region highly vulnerable to climate extremes, rising temperatures, water scarcity, and sea level rise. Despite the urgency of these issues, gaps in public knowledge and institutional responses remain, largely due to the inadequate media coverage and limited scientific literacy. This paper investigates the role of climate journalism in South Asia, focusing on the ways media coverage or the lack thereof affects public awareness and climate change adaptation efforts. The study explores the state of climate change reporting across Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, highlighting regional challenges in media coverage, such as event-based reporting, limited technical knowledge, and economic constraints. Media in the region often fails to address the long-term and systematic nature of climate issues, instead focusing on immediate events or political concerns, thus hindering a deeper public understanding of climate science and policy. The paper also delves into the changing dynamics of climate journalism in the context of South Asia’s unique media landscape, examining the organizational and structural challenges faced by the journalists. It discusses the influence of political, economic, and social factors on the framing of climate stories, and the resulting implications for the climate policy and public engagement. By conducting a content analysis of environmental reporting in regional print media, this study identifies key gaps in the coverage of climate change, especially the underreporting of local environmental issues and the broader systemic impacts. The research contributes valuable insights into how media can better support climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in South Asia, promoting more informed and inclusive responses to one of the most pressing global challenges.