Ben Macklin
The challenge of the villagers on Shishmaref is not anything new with voting upon relocation of the village dating back to as early as 1975. With climate change not yet being a hot topic in the media, the spread of the Shishmaref in media didn’t begin until much later. A key factor in bringing the attention of the world onto Shishmaref was in 2013 when the Obama administration told the village that no federal money was available during the same timeframe as the announcement being made that Vietnam would be given 17 million dollars to deal with climate change.
One of the perspectives the media took upon looking at Shishmaref was an 
ethical viewpoint. A significant coverage from this perspective was on Oprah when Al Gore appeared and discussed climate change and the idea of climate refugees. This concept is one that focuses on the concept of individuals who are losing their way of life due to the impact of climate change. In the episode, Gore advocated for progress to be made on climate change and for the united states to take action. An ethical standpoint exemplifies the issue that the individuals on Shishmaref who are facing the impact of climate change, are the individuals who are least adding to the cause of climate change. From oil and gas companies to an individual driving to and from work in a high emission vehicle, the impact of climate change can be put on so many shoulders. With the community of Shishmaref being rural, they do not have the funds to fix the problems themselves and their hope is for their message to spread in this way through media.
Another perspective the news uses to look at Shishmaref is one in which they use the village to benefit their own political ideology. In so many articles and news websites, Shishmaref is 
painted as a suffering village in immediate danger and with no way out, using words and phrases such as describing the village as having “finally surrendered,” or “defeated by decades of implacable change” (Kristin Choo). The writing of the village exaggerates to the extent that an individual reading an article from 3 years ago may believe the village could already be underwater. For the news industries publishing content such as this, they benefit from the shock factor in which people believe they need to take immediate action. This plays into beliefs about fixing climate change now to protect the future. For so many of this news coverage, there is not an adequate amount of information about Shishmaref for an individual to grasp the whole issue the villagers have faced.