Where does climate fit in to people and the media?

Undoubtedly more people subscribe to People than to the Ecologist. And why not? The focus is on gossip and intrigue, the glamorous and beautiful. To the average American consumer, studies of soil, photos of birds, and op-ed pieces on the state of the Amazon Basin pale in comparison to Britney Spear’s most recent mental breakdown.
I can understand the media game, the focus on people and face-to-face conflict, as opposed to institutional structure and practice, in hopes of reaping the benefits of selling one more magazine subscription or receiving one more hit on a website. Yet this means that today the American people know more and can more easily access information about the Spears family than the actions of their representatives in the House and Senate to combat climate change.
However, there are those few journalists that stray from the norm and cover the “difficult stories over the long haul,” who don’t garner such attention as those writing for Vogue. One such difficult story: climate change.
This year Andrew Revkin received the 2008 John Chancellor Award for excellence in journalism, alongside Jane Meyer. He was recognized for his work covering climate change. While this is very positive, Revkin currently sees his work as something that has “evolved,” where “climate change is not the story of our time” but rather a “subset”.
A subset to what one may ask? A subset, he claims, to people. For example, Revkin speaks of the “billion teenagers on planet earth right now,” as “the story of our time,” where as global warming is a “symptom” of this era not the disease.
While acknowledging Revkin’s ideas, I disagree. The focus on people is inevitable in our media, yet I believe we need to collectively demand more coverage on other species and processes that are a part of climate change. Al Gore’s acclaimed documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth," should only be the beginning of sensational media coverage on the issue. The media is a part of the democratic process, a way to hold government accountable, and the easiest way to inform and mobilize the masses. If People magazine pledges to include a section on climate change, highlighting people involved in the movement and processes that are apart of government action, I believe a greater shift in awareness will occur. Furthermore, if we encourage young children to go out and interact with nature as opposed to playing video games, we can help to foster a sense of co-ownership of our land. For children to believe that trees and birds own the world to the same extent that humans do; to treat others fairly involves treating trees, oceans, and whales fairly too. Let us find a place for climate change to be a part of the media, in a way that does not focus on people as the one true story of our time.