From Investigation to Action: Using Journalism and Theatre to Tell Environmental Stories

What happens when a room full of Students and Educators is asked not just to talk about environmental destruction, but to do something about it?

Sometimes, a workshop begins with a presentation, but this one began with a question: What are we doing to the environment, and how do we get people to care before it is too late?

Students from the University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (USTED) and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) recently gathered for an engaging environmental and media literacy workshop organised by the Pulitzer Center and Perron GH. It was more than a workshop. It became a space for questions, uncomfortable truths, ideas, collaboration, and perhaps most importantly, storytelling.

The Environment Is Not Somewhere Else

The first major presentation was led by Dr. Afua Amponsah Amankwah, whose work and expertise in agroforestry, biodiversity, climate change, carbon sequestration and natural resource management brought an important perspective to the conversation. She took us beyond the familiar slogans about saving the environment and helped us think more deeply about why environmental protection matters.

The forest is not simply a collection of trees.

The river is not merely water flowing through a community.

The land is not just something waiting to be exploited.

These ecosystems support livelihoods, biodiversity, food systems, climate regulation and human survival. When they are damaged, the consequences do not remain neatly inside the forest. They eventually find their way into our homes, our communities and our daily lives.

And that was where the conversation became even more interesting.

Following Dr. Afua Amponsah Amankwah's presentation, Mr. Emmanuel Amoako, CEO of Perron GH, took us deeper into the relationship between human activity and climate change.

He examined how the choices we make, how we produce, consume, develop and interact with nature, contribute to environmental degradation and global warming. But climate change is not simply a distant scientific problem to be discussed in conference rooms.

It has faces. It has communities. It has families.

It has people whose lives and livelihoods are increasingly vulnerable to environmental changes.

Particular attention was drawn to coastal communities, where environmental changes and the effects of climate change can have serious consequences for people living and working along the coast. Suddenly, climate change stopped sounding like a textbook definition. It became a human story. And perhaps that is one of the greatest challenges facing environmental communication: How do we turn information into something people can see, feel and understand?

Then came the part I enjoyed most. We were divided into groups and given a challenge: look at the destruction of the Atewa Forest, examine the forces and interests behind it, and think about how we could communicate the issue effectively to the public, stakeholders and government. The room changed. Students who had been listening quietly suddenly became investigators, communicators, advocates and strategists. Ideas began flying across tables.

What should the public know?

Who needs to hear the message?

How do we communicate with government?

How do we engage communities?

How do we make environmental issues understandable without reducing their complexity?

And perhaps the most important question:

How do we make people care?

The Atewa Forest became more than a geographical location. It became a case study in the complicated relationship between environmental protection, economic interests, human activity and the responsibility to preserve natural resources for generations yet unborn.

We Don't Only Have an Environmental Problem. We Have a Communication Problem.

This was one of the biggest lessons I took from the workshop.

We can have the research.

We can have the data.

We can have scientists documenting environmental changes.

We can have journalists investigating wrongdoing.

We can have activists raising their voices.

But if the story never reaches the people who need to hear it or if it reaches them in a way they cannot connect with, then something is missing.

Communication matters.

And this is where my own perspective entered the conversation. As a writer and theatre practitioner, I have always been fascinated by the ability of stories to move people. Journalism can investigate. It can ask difficult questions, gather evidence, uncover hidden realities and hold power to account. But theatre can take those findings and put a human face on them.

It can make us laugh, it can make us uncomfortable, it can make us angry, it can make us think and most importantly, it can make us feel.

What If Journalism Met Theatre?

Imagine a journalist investigates the destruction of a forest. The investigation uncovers the facts, follows the money, speaks to affected communities and reveals what is happening behind the headlines. Now imagine those findings becoming a stage performance.

A farmer walks onto the stage.

A logger enters.

A government official appears.

A community leader speaks.

The forest itself becomes a character.

The audience watches the consequences unfold, not as statistics on a page, but as human experiences. At the end, the audience is not simply asking:

"What happened?"

They are asking:

"What can we do?"

That is the intersection I am increasingly interested in: journalism backed by theatre and performance as a tool for environmental communication and civic engagement.

Journalism gives us the investigation. Theatre gives us emotional engagement. Together, they can create space for public dialogue, community participation and collective action.

From Information to Action

The workshop reminded us that storytelling is not merely about entertainment. Stories can shape public consciousness. They can challenge powerful interests. They can preserve memories. They can amplify communities whose voices are often ignored and they can make complicated issues accessible to ordinary people. For environmental issues especially, we need more than reports that sit on shelves. We need investigative journalism that asks uncomfortable questions. We need teachers who help young people understand global issues. We need artists who can translate complex realities into compelling stories. We need communicators who can connect research to everyday life and we need citizens willing to listen, question and act.

The Story Doesn't End Here

As the workshop came to an end, we left with more questions than answers and I think that is a good thing.

Because perhaps the purpose of a good workshop is not to give you all the answers.

Perhaps it is to give you better questions.

How can we protect the Atewa Forest?

How can journalists investigate environmental destruction more effectively?

How can artists transform environmental research into stories that communities can connect with?

How can we communicate with policymakers in ways that encourage action?

And ultimately,

How do we move from talking about environmental protection to actually protecting the environment?

The workshop organised by the Pulitzer Center and Perron GH reminded me that the fight for our environment will require more than scientists and policymakers.

It will require storytellers.

It will require journalists.

It will require teachers.

It will require artists.

And it will require young people willing to ask difficult questions and imagine different possibilities.

Because sometimes, before society changes its behaviour, someone has to tell the story that makes it impossible to look away.

And perhaps that is where journalism and theatre can meet.

One investigates the wound. The other makes us feel it. Together, they can inspire us to heal it.

—Sylar Bobo-Bee