• Journalism as a practice is on the cusp of a major shift; engagement with traditional media such as TV, print and news websites continues to fall, while dependence on social media, video and online platforms is rising.
• This is happening amid shrinking press freedoms worldwide and the growing climate crisis, which, unlike with the previous generation of reporters, is the lived reality of young journalists today who confront climate change directly, rather than as a potential hazard in some distant future.
• To navigate these shifts and to rebuild public trust in news media, we need training programs tailored to equip local reporters with skills in new forms of storytelling and the tools needed to cover the systemic crises taking place across the Global South.
• This commentary is part of Our Letters to the Future, a series produced by the Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows as their final fellowship project. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

In this series, Our Letters to the Future, the sixth cohort of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows share their views on environmental journalism, conservation and the future for their generation, amid multiple planetary crises. Each commentary is a personal reflection, based on individual fellows’ experiences in their home communities and the insights gained through the past six months of the fellowship. The series spans the Global South — Malaysia, India, Colombia, Brazil, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo — showcasing a broad diversity of ideas and the common ground these young environmental journalists share as they embark on their careers.

English poet Thomas Gray famously wrote, “where ignorance is bliss, ‘Tis folly to be wise.” He wasn’t particularly speaking of journalists or of Earth’s precarious future. I believe that ignorance is the enemy of journalism, it is no bliss, but the very thing we are meant to expose. Perhaps ignorance is an ally of politics and the greatest of all blisses for capitalists.

As I write this, Delhi gasps for breath. How can one ignore that? Delhi, one of the world’s most polluted cities in the world’s most populous nation, and a mirror to our collective neglect. This is just an isolated example. There’s more to the story of global environmental crises. But the question I’m most often asked by friends and family isn’t, “What will you do about it?” but “Why do you care?” .

People do yoga early morning at the Lodhi garden as a thick layer of smog envelopes New Delhi in 2024. Once again, the city faces dangerously high levels of air pollution — an example of the sort of environmental challenge that young journalists today experience directly, rather than as a distant problem. Image by AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File.

I enter the environmental journalism scene with the idealism that most youths carry with them by default — of making a difference in people’s lives and diligently documenting Earth’s history through storytelling. But things today look differently than they did 20 years ago, when most of the editors we work with joined the fanfare with the idealism of their youth.

Amid the growing climate crisis and shrinking press freedoms worldwide in the age of misinformation, journalism as a practice stands on the cusp of a major shift. The 2025 Reuters Institute Digital News Report revealed that engagement with traditional media such as TV, print and news websites continues to fall, with dependence on social media, video and online platforms on the rise. The report particularly notes that in Global South countries, including the Philippines, Thailand, Kenya and India, more people prefer to watch the news rather than read it.

As preference for news consumption is dramatically shifting, media ownership in South Asian countries like India is concentrated with a few wealthy tycoons, who are often uncritical of the government.

In his 2023 interview with *Frontline *magazine, journalist P. Sainath, whose work deeply inspires me, said: “One of the most serious losses to journalism is that it has turned into a carnival-yelling by anchors. We have forgotten how to tell a story. Storytelling is at the heart of journalism.”

A commuter watches a video on his mobile phone lying down at a bus stop in New Delhi. Data indicate that more and more people get their news from social media and videos rather than traditional journalism outlets. Image by AP Photo/Manish Swarup.

In contrast to his views, for the first time, AI chatbots are being used as a source of news by a significant section of people under 35 worldwide, who say that news is “too hard to understand,” the Reuters report revealed.

However noble reporting may be as a profession, public trust in journalism is slowly fading. More and more people are relying on social media personalities and influencers on YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, X and TikTok, and it is now time to traditional methods and reinvent journalism.

In June 2024, on an unremarkably bright day in Bengaluru, while reporting on civic issues for a legacy newspaper, my colleagues and I were shocked to learn that the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media, a prominent journalism institute, had Some of my peers were alumni of the institute. And for some of us highly aspirational beings, barely a year into our reporting careers, covering urban flooding, bottleneck traffic, air pollution, water contamination and gaps in public policies for modest pay in overstretched newsrooms, the closure came across as symbolic of a long career undone. It was a reminder of how fragile journalism has become in a country that needs it more than ever.

Recently, in one of my private conversations with a senior journalist, I learned that in many regional-language dailies as well as local news outlets, there are no designated beat reporters to cover climate or the environment, but health reporters end up covering science, environment and related issues. This, he said, leads to omission of important stories, as the reporter gets burdened with routine news stories from multiple beats, too exhausted to pursue insightful scientific studies that echo new the planet and its future.

Moreover, unlike the previous generation of reporters, we confront climate change more directly. It is our lived reality rather than a potential hazard in some distant future. Hence, a problem elsewhere, a thousand miles from you and me, is still our collective problem, and our collective.

A youth checks his mobile phone on the bank of the River Ganges in Prayagraj, India. Recent research shows young people increasingly get their news on social media, video and online platforms. Image by AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File.

We need to make newsrooms alive once again, with bigger teams and more reporters concentrated on specific beats to work both individually and collaboratively across beats — every story may be an environmental story. Funding and grants are crucial, as excessive dependence on commercials may dilute work ethics and subsequently affect the “nobility” aspect of reporting.

After reporting on local issues for about two years in a conventional newsroom and being part of the Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship with Mongabay alongside five other early-career journalists from Brazil, Colombia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malaysia over the last six months, I now understand the nuances of storytelling more deeply. It taught me that what happens in my immediate surroundings is often linked to larger systemic challenges across the Global South. We need more such collaborations across newsrooms where reporters are given the space to think and report beyond national borders.

To rebuild public trust in news media, we need training programs tailored to equip local reporters with the skills to navigate new forms of storytelling. Initiatives to train journalists in AI-assisted reporting, audio and visual tools to foster efficiency while reporting can be transformative, especially in the Global South. With journalism institutes shutting down and admissions on the decline, these programs could play a vital role in shaping the next generation of reporters — and by extension, the future of journalism itself.

Banner image:* Volunteers clean up plastic and other waste materials on a beach on the Arabian Sea coast on World Environment Day in Mumbai. Environmental crises are lived experiences for young generations today — including journalists. Image by AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File.*