TRACK 1: MEDIA

National Stakeholders – Global Risks Forum

Focus: Amplify climate and water-energy-food nexus initiatives via multi-sector communication, media outreach, and stakeholder awareness. Ideal for participants with backgrounds/interests in journalism, communications, public relations, or advocacy.

Week 1: Orientation & Program Launch

• Objective: Familiarize yourself with GCRI’s mission, NWG roles, the Nexus Reports structure, and overarching RTD theme.
• Activities:
  • Learn about NWGs’ function in bridging global and national contexts.
  • Learn about our three tracks (Media, Development, Research) and how they intersect.
  • Slack & Zenodo setup, review of open science and just transition principles.
• Deliverables:
  • Personal development plans: Select your track (Media, Development, or Research).
  • NWG collaboration plan for cross-track synergy.

Learning Components

1. Actor Mapping Guide
   • How to Use: Create an “actor map” of your local media ecosystem (journalists, bloggers, social channels, etc.) and the public agencies or NGOs relevant to climate/RTD.
   • Outcome: A visual or tabular mapping of stakeholders, capturing the roles of each “actor” and potential collaboration/influence points.
2. System Mapping Overview
   • How to Use: Sketch how these media actors connect with local communities, policymakers, the private sector, and environmental groups—identifying where “communication bottlenecks” may exist.
   • Outcome: A “mini system map” showing information flows and potential alignment for coverage on climate justice and RTD.

Week 2: Media Landscape & Stakeholder Mapping

• Objective: Identify key media outlets, influencers, and partner organizations in climate and sustainability coverage.
• Activities:
  • Stakeholder mapping (quintuple helix: government, academia, private sector, civil society, media).
  • Developing an essential “media contacts” list for local, national, and global coverage.
• Deliverables:
  • Draft a “Media Ecosystem Map” that aligns with NWG’s climate action objectives.

Learning Components

1. Systems Thinking Guide
   • How to Use: Examine how various media narratives (health, environment, social justice) are interlinked within your country’s climate context.
   • Outcome: Draft coverage ideas that cross multiple resource topics (water, energy, food, health).
2. Complexity Theory Guide
   • How to Use: Recognize chain reactions in the public sphere—for instance, how a climate story might spur political debate or policy changes.
   • Outcome: Plan how your reporting can illuminate deeper cause-effect relationships rather than just surface-level events.

Week 3: Crowdsourcing Communication Tactics

• Objective: Explore methods for engaging the public, collecting user-generated content, and building awareness around the Nexus Ecosystem.
• Activities:
  • Brainstorm social media campaigns or local radio/TV spots.
  • Draft messages emphasizing climate justice, data-driven solutions, and RTD principles.
• Deliverables:
  • Communication Plan for crowdsourced stories, data, or feedback on climate vulnerabilities.

Learning Components

1. Complex Adaptive Systems Guide
   • How to Use: Outline how your local media environment adapts to emerging events (floods, droughts, policy shifts). Identify self-organizing behaviors, feedback loops, or “viral” trends.
   • Outcome: Strategy doc describing how to pivot coverage when new risk signals appear, such as a surge in heatwaves.
2. Systems Theory Guide
   • How to Use: Frame your coverage so it acknowledges stocks, flows, and feedback loops in resource management—helping audiences see the “bigger picture.”
   • Outcome: Preliminary editorial “lens” ensuring your articles or segments consistently connect the dots among resource flows, social justice, and policy.

Week 4: Content Creation & Communication Toolkits

• Objective: Create ready-to-use media packs (infographics, one-pagers, interview scripts) to explain NWG’s scope.
• Activities:
  • Designing simple infographics on baseline conditions or displacement scenarios.
  • Coordinating with local journalists or youth ambassadors for coverage.
• Deliverables:
  • “Media Toolkit” with visuals, brand guidelines, outreach templates.

Learning Components

1. Systems Awareness Guide
   • How to Use: Heighten your sense of how different media stories or angles might amplify or reduce certain viewpoints, ensuring balanced coverage.
   • Outcome: A self-audit of your editorial stance—recognize potential blind spots or biases.
2. Systems Inquiry Guide
   • How to Use: Formulate deeper questions to ask stakeholders—beyond “What happened?” to “Why did this happen?” or “How can it be prevented or mitigated?”
   • Outcome: Interview or story frameworks that systematically dig into root causes and cross-sector linkages.

Week 5: Storytelling & Engagement

• Objective: Ensure climate justice stories highlight real people’s experiences and solutions from the NWG’s baseline findings.
• Activities:
  • Interviews with community members or data owners (farmers, city dwellers, NGO reps).
  • Draft articles or short media pieces on AI-based predictions of heatwaves or displacement.
• Deliverables:
  • Short, publishable features (blog posts, short videos, local radio segments).

Learning Components

1. Guides Overview
   • How to Use: Review the entire compendium of guides to see how each might apply to your editorial tasks.
   • Outcome: A quick reference matrix linking each guide to possible story types (heatwave coverage, policy changes, public health alerts).
2. Horizon Scanning Guide
   • How to Use: Conduct forward-looking research to anticipate future climate or RTD developments, capturing topics that could become major news.
   • Outcome: A short “forecast article” or editorial plan on emergent issues like potential displacement hotspots or upcoming policy reforms.

Week 6: Media Training & Mentorship

• Objective: Sharpen participants’ communication skills and ensure consistent messaging across NWG.
• Activities:
  • Workshops on ethical reporting, just transition narratives, and Earth system boundaries.
  • Peer feedback on draft articles or social media content.
• Deliverables:
  • Final or near-final media content ready for local/national dissemination.

Learning Components

1. Impact Guide
   • How to Use: Track or evaluate how your stories influence public debate, legislative interest, or social media engagement.
   • Outcome: A plan for measuring coverage impact—metrics like article shares, policy mentions, or grassroots mobilization.
2. Leverage Points Guide
   • How to Use: Identify high-impact “levers” in the system (e.g., a parliamentary committee, local council, or major NGO) that can quickly effect change when informed by media coverage.
   • Outcome: Media angle that targets explicitly these levers—for instance, “Op-ed for the parliamentary environment subcommittee.”

Week 7: Stakeholder Forums & Live Coverage

• Objective: Publicly share NWG’s interim results or pilot data in GRF sessions, garnering feedback from government officials and civil society.
• Activities:
  • Live coverage (social media, local press releases) of NWG roundtables or demonstration events.
  • Q&A sessions for community or diaspora groups.
• Deliverables:
  • Forum coverage material posted on Zenodo, Slack, or local media outlets.

Learning Components

1. Multi-Level Mapping
   • How to Use: Illustrate how local community concerns, national policy debates, and global climate frameworks interconnect in your stories.
   • Outcome: Create advanced editorial “maps” to show readers how an event in a village ties into national or UN-level discussions.
2. Value Networks Guide
   • How to Use: Show how resource flows—financing, data, influence—pass between stakeholders. Reveal in your reporting how each stakeholder invests or benefits.
   • Outcome: Exposé or feature identifying winners and losers in a climate or development initiative, shining light on inequality or conflict.

Week 8: Assessing Media Impact

• Objective: Evaluate the effectiveness of communication strategies.
• Activities:
  • Track metrics: social media engagement, coverage volume, new partnerships.
  • Collect audience feedback on clarity of messaging and perceived relevance.
• Deliverables:
  • Media Impact Assessment Report with lessons learned.

Learning Components

1. Narratives Guide
   • How to Use: Craft multi-layered story arcs—mixing personal testimonies, data, policy quotes—to build empathy and spur collective action.
   • Outcome: A set of narrative frames that consistently incorporate resource baselines, user testimonies, and policy angles.
2. Network Organizations Guide
   • How to Use: Identify how different civil society alliances, philanthropic foundations, or local committees form networks enabling change.
   • Outcome: Feature articles or news segments spotlighting these networks, encouraging cross-pollination of efforts (urban climate adaptation, rural resource management, etc.).

Weeks 9–10: Amplifying Key Findings & Pre-Publication Promotion

• Objective: Prepare the final public awareness push leading up to the quarterly Nexus Reports publications.
• Activities:
  • Release final stories or infographics.
  • Collaborate with Research teams for consistent narratives.
• Deliverables:
  • Media campaign pack: final promos, social posts, local interviews.

Learning Components

1. Scaling Change Guide
   • How to Use: Plan how your coverage can spark local-to-national expansions of climate or RTD initiatives—ensuring stories remain relevant over time.
   • Outcome: “Roadmap” for ongoing editorial coverage that tracks a pilot solution’s scaling journey.
2. Systems Building Overview
   • How to Use: Understand the architecture behind multi-stakeholder ecosystems (government, private, NGO) for longer-term structural change.
   • Outcome: In-depth articles highlighting how governance, technology, and finance converge to sustain climate justice solutions.
3. Systems Change Overview
   • How to Use: Demonstrate in reporting how integrated interventions might displace old, unsustainable structures (e.g., outdated policy or resource exploitation).
   • Outcome: Articles or broadcast pieces explaining large-scale transformations, bridging local success and systemic evolution.
4. Systems Innovation Guide
   • How to Use: Look for emergent, out-of-the-box solutions (like advanced AI or community-led finance) to feature.
   • Outcome: Trend pieces or explainer videos showcasing cutting-edge innovations that unify climate, development, and social equity.

Weeks 11–12: Final Review & Legacy Strategy

• Objective: Consolidate all media outputs, reflect on best practices, and plan future expansions or handovers.
• Activities:
  • Summative review of coverage, stakeholder feedback, and next steps for ongoing communication.
  • Final submission of media outputs.
• Deliverables:
  • “Media Legacy File” documenting relationships built, media content produced, and recommendations for the next quarter.

Learning Components

1. Systems Modeling Guide
   • How to Use: Translate model outputs into accessible media. E.g., “Heatwave predicted for Region X—here’s what the model says.”
   • Outcome: Engaging data visualizations or story graphs that depict resource usage or climate projections.
2. Two Loops Guide
   • How to Use: Illustrate how old organizational structures fade while new, more adaptive systems arise in climate governance or social activism.
   • Outcome: Storylines showing the “old loop” (e.g., fossil fuels) gradually replaced by the “new loop” (renewables, community-based solutions).
3. Systems Awareness Guide (Revisited)
   • How to Use: Validate whether your media outputs consistently demonstrated cross-sector awareness, user-centric approaches, and just transition messaging.
   • Outcome: Reflection piece to highlight your track’s overall approach and next steps.
4. Guides Overview (Revisited)
   • How to Use: Reassess the entire suite of guides used across the 12 weeks; finalize any missing details or references.
   • Outcome: A short summary or culminating article detailing best practices and future directions in media coverage of climate justice & RTD.

Putting It All Together

During each week, you’ll combine selected resources to strengthen your media content, from identifying stakeholders (Actor Mapping) to understanding emergent patterns (Complex Adaptive Systems) and scaling changes (Scaling Change Guide). By weaving these resources into your editorial planning, you ensure:

• Holistic Storytelling: Reflecting the complexity of #ClimateJustice and #RightToDevelopment.
• Community Engagement: Encouraging inclusive voices in your pieces through stakeholder mapping and multi-level frameworks.
• Policy Impact: Leveraging system building, scaling guides, and horizon scanning to resonate with policymakers and local actors alike.
• Long-Term Transformation: Documenting how media coverage spurs awareness, fosters alliances, and ensures accountability under Earth system and just transition principles.

Choosing Your Track & Next Steps

1. Select the track (Media, Development, or Research) that best aligns with your skills and goals.
2. Follow the weekly guidelines but remain flexible—collaboration across tracks is encouraged!
3. Engage with NWG leadership, Slack channels, and Zenodo submissions for feedback and synergy.
4. Aim to have final outputs ready for submission, supporting the global theme: Climate Justice, Sustainability, and the Right to Development.

By the end of 12 weeks, you’ll have tangible contributions—media outreach materials, AI solutions, or a published research piece—firmly anchored in open science, just transition, and Earth system stewardship.

We look forward to your active participation and pioneering achievements within your chosen track!