The OneOcean team has been working on a weekly media analysis – the OneOcean Response Room briefing – that looks at the intersections between COVID-19 and environment content, the environment and ocean content, and ocean and COVID-19 content on both legacy and social media.
During the COVID-19 situation, it is important to understand the kind of conversations that are taking place, what is resonating with people and why, to ensure that our communication is as impactful as possible and – at the very least – does no harm in this sensitive time.
The briefing provides recommendations and example materials which reflect the findings from our analysis. Find to follow a summary of the top-line findings of this week’s briefing, covering 4-10 May, 2020.
The full OneOcean Response Room weekly briefing and supporting analysis is available to Flotilla members. If your organisation is interested in receiving this briefing, is not a member and interested in joining, please email travis@oceanprotect.org
Summary of findings
This week we’ve seen a slightly reduced volume of coverage at the COVID-19, ocean and environment intersection, with an overall shift to a less positive tone.
For the first time since the start of our media monitoring there has been a higher volume of coverage around the adverse impacts of lockdown on the environment than the positive, for example with multiple governments accused of exploiting the lockdown to roll back environmental protection.
As anticipated through the analysis in previous briefings, articles on the integration of environmental policy into economic recovery have become increasingly detailed. Accompanying this we have seen the notable emergence of counter voices arguing that environmental protection and economic recovery are not compatible. We expect this trend to continue.
Despite the above trends, the positive strand of coverage has not disappeared. Collections of voices (whether academics, business leaders, scientists etc) calling for urgent positive change have featured highly this week. There has also been extensive coverage around moves to greener city design in response to changes in public behaviour.