Television news directors are interested in running more science stories, but few have staff dedicated to the beat and climate change is covered relatively infrequently on local TV news, according to the preliminary findings of “A National Survey Of News Directors About Climate Change,” conducted by George Mason University in conjunction with the Radio Television Digital News Association.

According to the survey, nearly three quarters of news directors say their station reports on science issues once a month or more frequently, and almost half say they would like to report on science issues more frequently in the future. Only 10 percent of news directors, however, say they have a full time science or environmental reporter.

While most news directors said they were comfortable with reporting climate change, fewer than half of news directors (44 percent) say their station reports on climate change once a month or more frequently. The majority of news directors (65 percent) say they will cover climate change stories at about the same frequency in the future, although 29 percent indicate they intend to cover the issue more frequently.

Click here to view the survey in its entirety

Relatively few TV news directors (28 percent) said they have experienced obstacles to reporting on climate change. For those who identified obstacles, the most common were: perceived scientific uncertainty about climate change (27 percent), complexity of the subject (26 percent), difficulty finding a local angle (25 percent), and lack of time for field reporting (24 percent). About 20 percent say lack of viewer support, lack of access to trusted scientific information, and lack of access to appropriate visuals/graphics are obstacles to reporting climate change. Less than three percent perceive pressure from advertisers, or from station owners, as obstacles to climate change coverage.

According to the study, news directors said a wide variety of resources would be helpful in increasing their news-room’s ability to report on climate change. Nearly all said additional training and education for their weathercasters (89 percent), and their news staff (92 percent), would be beneficial. Additionally, access to climate scientists for on camera interviews (87 percent), access to high quality graphics/animations to use on-air (86 percent), access to peer-reviewed journals (79 percent), and access to PowerPoint presentations to use in public speaking events (56 percent) are considered valuable resources by a majority of respondents.

More than half of news directors (53 percent) said that global warming is happening, 21 percent say it isn’t, and 26 percent say they don’t know yet.

Just over half said global warming is caused mostly by human activities (52 percent), while a third say it is caused mostly by natural changes in the environment (34 percent). Most news directors said they have thought a lot about global warming (82 percent) and are well informed about the different causes of global warming (83 percent). Somewhat fewer, however, feel well informed about the different consequences of global warming (69 percent) and the ways in which we can reduce global warming (66 percent).