“What if the media stopped the images of beaches and ice cream to illustrate heat waves?” In full heatwave alert, a media specializing in the treatment of environmental issues, Vert, questions journalistic practices, Tuesday, June 14. The conclusion is implacable: vHeat wave after heat wave, heat wave after heat wave, abnormally high temperatures are often accompanied by positive illustrations in the media. Moreover, the mea culpa is essential: franceinfo has not always been flawless.
>> Weather: follow live the consequences of the early heat wave that hits France
But exasperation with these media portrayals is growing. Increasingly, scientists who study global warming (and whose work points to the dangers associated with each tenth of a degree of additional warming) are warning about these practices. In a long thread published on Twitter, Sunday June 12, the climatologist Christophe Cassou challenged the journalists: “Please stop showing images of people bathing during the heat wave.he wrote. Thank you for affirming the direct link between the occurrence of heat waves and human influence (the link being very robust).”
journalists,
to no longer show images of people bathing during the heat wave #Cognitive dissonance
to affirm the direct link between the occurrence of #HeatWaves & human influence (the link being very robust) & no longer make it an issue
37/.— Christophe Cassou (@cassouman40) June 12, 2022
In his speech, the climatologist, who is among the authors of the IPCC report, evokes the “cognitive dissonance” provoked by these iconographic choices. To know, “a gap between the reality of extreme phenomena which result in human victims – excess mortality, pressure on hospitals, economic consequences, forest fires, effects on agricultural yields, etc. – and these nice pictures, explains geographer Magali Reghezza, member of the High Council for the Climate. Positive representations, associated with what is still presented as “summer before time”, “do not account for the enormous blows to society from heat waves. And in the worst case, they induce dangerous behavior”, she continues.
This dissonance has been documented by British geographer Saffron O’Neill. By studying the media coverage of the summer 2019 heat waves in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, she noted that “the majority of the images showed people having fun in or near the water“, even when the text of the article evokes tragedies related to the heat, she explains in a series of messages published on May 6 on Twitter, detailing the conclusions of his study (in English).
So many positive or disembodied visuals – for example, a landscape or a thermometer – that “relegate to the margins the experience of people vulnerable to these extreme heat waves, not to mention the effects on animals, plants and other non-human species” and perpetuate “the idea that climate change can be an abstract and distant problem”. How to explain the difficulty of correctly representing this news? Magali Reghezza quotes the weight “inheritance”.
“These episodes have long been exceptional and it was indeed nice to have 30 to 35°C from time to time. But there, when we exceed 40°C and the episodes repeat themselves, it’s not more of the same.”
Magali Reghezza, geographer
Already in 2021, when a “heat dome” had ignited southwestern Canada and the northeastern United States, Freeze Frame had pointed to these “visual standards” associated with each climatic phenomenon and perpetuated by the royalty-free image banks from which the media draw. “In a few years, fixed, recognizable stories, probably quite quick to implement for editorial staff, have become essential”explained the columnist André Gunthert, citing “a catalog of repetitive images that form new stereotypes”.
Determined to get out The Guardian has, since 2019, assumed a change of visual tone. Transparent on its editorial path, the British daily explained how the problem had arisen on the occasion of the publication of a slide show on the heat wave of June this year. “In its first version, the tone was lighter, but we thought on reflection that it was a bad choice that negated the current context, and we updated the post to include images that represented other experiences human beings in the face of these extraordinary temperatures”explained the daily.
In France, The world followed in the footsteps of the prestigious British daily. “For example, if we can’t find an illustration that suits us, we will sometimes send a photographer or call on a specialized agency”, Explain Pauline Eiferman, deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper’s photo department, interviewed by France Inter. “The photos are much more impactful, with real captions that serve the article.”
To put an end to these stereotypes, Green cites several initiatives: the photographic base of Climate Visuals in the United Kingdom or in France, the study Images and acts and its image database destined to “who wants to avoid clumsy communication on climate issues”.
“We expect the media to be players in information and prevention.”
Magali Reghezza, geographerat franceinfo
Thus, showing a heat wave is also “go see vulnerable people: the elderly of course, but also single women, the homeless, workers, people who live in thermal sieves, seasonal workers…” An editorial readjustment in the face of the emergency which, she thinks, will contribute to imposing a fairer iconographic culture. “It is not a question of making people feel guilty, but of informing about the reality of a heat wave. Reality is not umbrellas. Tonight, people who will be too hot to sleep will not find that heat is nice. People who are going to lose a grandparent and overworked caregivers either”she concludes.