By Carson Davis
The 2024 Planet Forward Summit welcomed nearly 400 guests into the Jack Morton Auditorium with five panel discussions on effective sustainability storytelling. These dialogues inspired us and challenged our journalistic approaches to communicating the climate crisis.
One discussion in particular, How We Frame It: Crafting Your Story with Intention, caught my attention. Moderated by Tyler Hickman, a Planet Forward Correspondent from University of Colorado-Boulder, the segment and its panelists skillfully navigated some of sustainability storytelling’s most tricky questions. How do you craft an engaging story? With whom do you craft it? What can we do to ensure our storytelling is timely and impactful?
My Big 3 takeaways from the How We Frame It:
1. Framing should be participatory.
Sustainable storytelling is dependent on defining a character. One key piece of advice from panelist Jessica Stahl, Editor for Creative Storytelling at Grist, was to include ‘frontline communities’ that your story describes in the crafting of the story itself.
Coming from a background of focused, decisive reporting, Stahl encouraged us all to bring our characters into the storytelling process. Her journalistic niche is ensuring those most impacted by climate change are receiving the media attention they deserve. In this way, Stahl urges us to give platform to the characters of our stories (given they are tangible individuals) in a way that directly supports their needs. When participatory, your story’s frame will undoubtably make an impact.
Sustainability storytelling is dependent on defining a character.
2. Framing should be multidisciplinary.
While you may believe that you know how to tell a story best, consider the opinions and input of others. That’s what Rachel Frazin, Energy and Environment Reporter for The Hill, suggested to an eager and receptive audience. Frazin works for a publication that caters to a wide range of media consumers, often necessitating strict editing, fact-checking, and revision processes. As an energy and environment reporter, she understands the weight her journalism carries, especially for an audience that may not be expecting climate news.
While you may believe that you know... best, consider the opinions and input of others.
Frazin’s strategy utilizes the input and skills of those around her to synthesize a better end product. The climate crisis requires meticulous and intentional storytelling, and she urged us not to shy away from our coworkers, colleagues, and peers in times of need.
3. Framing should be flexible.
For Jesse J. Holland, journalism is an act of adaptability. The Associate Director and Associate Professor of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University regaled the Planet Forward audience with his perseverance. Declaring himself a “wordsmith” by trade, Holland reminded us that journalism is always changing, evolving, and reinventing itself. This occurs even amidst your storytelling process.
Journalism is an act of adaptability.
Holland emphasized the importance of flexible framing and ensuring the integrity of your story within that flexibility. Just as you match a particularly sized photo to a frame, sustainable storytelling must do the same. Holland reminded us that journalistic quality is only determined by the storyteller’s ability to adapt and grow alongside their work.
Carson Davis is an academic assistant at the GW Alliance for a Sustainable Future, and a GW Sustainability Minor pursuing a 5-year Master of Public Health degree.