Mass Media And Environmental Conflict

Case studies of environmental conflicts in US history illustrate the interactions among the mass media, environmentalists, government, and various power groups, and examine battles over public land, wild animals, clean air, and workplace hazards. Discusses species depletion and the evolution of hunt

Drawing on a range of international examples, Libby Lester invites readers to develop a nuanced understanding of changing media practices and dynamics by connecting local, national and global environmental issues, journalistic practices and news sources, public relations and protests, and the symbolic and strategic circulation of meanings in the public sphere.

The first in a new series, this presents a synthesis of current thinking and research on the role of the mass media in the rise of the environment as a social and political issue. It demonstrates the strengths of communications research in the analysis of social issues.

Using a range of related disciplinary perspectives, the global contributors to this book analyze and explain the complicated relationship between environmental conflict and the media. The book demonstrates how conflicts emanate from and flow across multiple sites, regions and media platforms and examines the role of the media in helping to structure collective discussion, debate and decision-making.

Environmental Risks and the Media explores the ways in which environmental risks, threats and hazards are represented, transformed and contested by the media. At a time when popular conceptions of the environment as a stable, natural world with which humanity interferes are being increasingly contested, the medias methods of encouraging audiences to think about environmental risks - from the BSE or 'mad cow' crisis to global climate change - are becoming more and more controversial. Examining large-scale disasters, as well as 'everyday' hazards, the contributors consider the tensions between entertainment and information in media coverage of the environment. How do the media frame 'expert', 'counter-expert' and 'lay public' definitions of environmental risk? What role do environmental pressure groups like Greenpeace or 'eco-warriors' and 'green guerrillas' play in shaping what gets covered and how? Does the media emphasis on spectacular events at the expense of issue-sensitive reporting exacerbate the public tendency to overestimate sudden and violent risks and underestimate chronic long-term ones?

This history of environmental journalism looks at how the practice now defines issues and sets the public agenda evolving from a tradition that includes the works of authors such as Pliny the Elder, John Muir, and Rachel Carson. It makes the case that the relationship between the media and its audience is an ongoing conversation between society and the media on what matters and what should matter.

The mass media in different countries reflects dominant concerns of contemporary societies. Ideas of `environmentalism' are often broad and imprecise, holding neither meaning nor currency. Environmentalism and Mass Media sheds new light on the diverse ideas of `environmentalism', the way environmental ideas circulate, and public reaction to environmental concerns conveyed by the media. Drawing on unique interviews with journalists, media pictures, and public opinion surveys in both UK and India, the authors outline the differing cultural, religious and political contexts against which `world views' form present a fascinating picture between North and South. Mass media and communication technology is in danger of locking Northern countries into a ghetto of environmental self-deception, thereby perpetuating poverty in the South. The South's goal remains the attainment of development; the North sees `environmental' problems occuring `elsewhere' - in Eastern Europe and developing countries. Whether or not `environmentalism' becomes a universal cause depends on how and to what extent such sharply contrasting world views can converge.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Communications - Journalism, Journalism Professions, grade: 8.7, Kenyatta University (Media Technology and Advanced Communication), course: Bachelors: Mass communication and Journalism, language: English, abstract: Environmental issues represent a very low proportion of all stories covered by newspapers; these stories also suffer from content limitations. No coverage of environmental issues in the popular media is likely to be a straight forward treatment of the facts due to many practical constrains, some of which are inherent in the structure and values of modern news reporting. Some of these constrains are: misreporting or miscommunication, low levels of journalistic training in science reporting and writing, media time and space constrains and commercial pressures. The objectives guiding the study are: how regularly are environmental conservation stories published and why they are not published as regularly and with such prominence as other stories of political and entertainment nature. A descriptive survey design will be used. This involves content analysis per se primarily as a tool of data collection. Purposive sampling dictated the choice of THE DAILY NATION and THE STANDARD as newspapers whose content shall be analyzed. The selection of media outlets was based on popularity and the number of published copies and the rating of selected newspapers. The period under analysis will be between the month of May and June. Conservation and sustenance of the environment has become one of the pressing issues facing humanity today with environmental and conservation education and awareness being regarded as one of the measures of halting the conflict between human and nature. According to Canadian Environmental Grantmakers’ Network, solving today's challenging local and global environmental issues and moving society towards conservational efforts cannot rest only with “experts” but will require the support and active participation of an informed public in their various roles as consumers, voters, employers, and business and community leaders. Thus, mass media should become an indispensable partner in global conservation and management through their various roles of not only increasing awareness on the problems and challenges towards environmental conservation and sustainability.