User:Brandon.olander/sandbox

Changes made to Media coverage of global warming

second paragraph, first sentence, changed "media" to "news media" and added reference to corresponding wikipedia article

added reference to Kyoto Protocol wiki article

added paragraph to intro: The Media and Climate Change Observatory team at the University of Colorado Boulder found that 2017 “saw media attention to climate change and global warming ebb and flow” with June seeing the maximum global media coverage on both subjects. This rise is “largely attributed to news surrounding United States (US) President Donald J. Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 United Nations (UN) Paris Climate Agreement, with continuing media attention paid to the emergent US isolation following through the G7 summit a few weeks later.”

deleted sentence that read "News reporters have been labeled by some scientists as ignorant about the science of climate change." w/o source

deleted argumentative sentence under Narrative Distortions that read "Human-interest controversies that pit “innocent victim” against “alleged perpetrator” are a popular story type."

reformatted sections titled "Factual distortions "Narrative distortions" and "Balance distortions" into a "Common distortions" section with appropriate subsections

added this paragraph to Discourses of Action: Breaking the prevailing notions in society requires discourse that is traditionally appropriate and approachable to common people. For example, Bill McKibben, an environmental activist, provides one approach to inspiring action: a war-like mobilization, where climate change is the enemy. This approach would resonate with working Americans who normally find themselves occupied with other news headlines. Dispelling the capitalist commodification of the environment also requires different rhetoric that breaks certain ingrained notions concerning the human relationship with the environment. This could include incorporating traditional Indigenous knowledge that prioritizes human existence with the environment as a mutualistic and protective one. Additionally, international movements in developing countries in the Global South (Latin America and Africa) are usually excluded in developed nations that assert hegemony over the economies of developing nations. This especially applies to the people of Latin America, that are battling multinational oil and mineral corporations that seek to cooperate with the ruling class and exploit fragile ecosystems, rather than provide real solutions to working people that mutually benefit the environment. This is apparent in Ecuador, where former President Rafael Correa, a left-leaning populist, incited “economic growth” as a reason to sell portions of the Amazon rainforest to oil companies. These popular movements usually are neglected by the United States due to corporate relationships within the political sphere of influence.

added this paragraph to United States: Data from the Media Matters for America organization has shown that, despite 2015 being “a year marked by more landmark actions to address climate change than ever before,” the combined climate coverage on the top broadcast networks was down by 5% from 2014.

Article evaluation

In the Wikipedia tutorial on evaluating articles and their sources, I learned about the identifiable characteristics of well-cited articles. These articles often contain a "good" or "Featured" rating and fit into Wikipedia's expectations for sourcing material. Sources cited should be independent of the topic they write on, and be well-known as intellectually neutral and honest. It is also important, in writing or editing an article, not to plagiarize the material of the original author; therefore, it is often best to paraphrase, incorporating the idea of the author without copying their sentence structure and vocabulary.