Environmental Journalism JOU 9742 FIMS UWO Bill Kovarik, PhD

Environmental

Journalism

JOU 9742 FIMS UWO

What is environmental

journalism?

Journalism is…

… a profession conveying news, information and opinion through mass media to various audiences. … an essential component of democracy,

protected by:

– The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 19,

Environmental Journalism is…

… NEW -- relatively new as a “beat” (1970s) but part of an

ongoing tradition of reporting about conservation, technology and public health

… ABOUT SCIENCE -- helping public understand

environmental science, along with economic and political issues about the environment

… INFORMING -- like other forms of journalism, oriented

towards informing the public with accredited facts and a broad array of analysis and opinion

… IMPROVING -- becoming more professional in recent years, thanks in part to SEJ, but also

… CHANGING -- undergoing severe cutbacks in US and Canadian newsrooms …

Journalism Associations

National or international -- Canadian Association of Journalists, US Society of Professional Journalists, British Association of Journalists,

InterAmerican Press Assn, etc.

Media or professional specialization -- Radio-TV News Directors, Online Journalists Association, Society of News Design,

Career development, minority -- National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Assn, National Assn of Black Journalists, National Assn of Hispanic Journalists

Subject specialization: military, sports, education, criminal justice, religion, agriculture, science & health care

– Society of Environmental Journalists (US & Canada) – National Assn of Science Writers (US)

• US Natl Assn Science Writers - 1934 • Canadian Assn Science

Writers - 1971 • Society Environmental

Journalists - 1990 • International Federation

Environmental Journalists - 1993 • World Federation Science

Journalists - 2002

Environmental Communication

• Academic definition: “EC is the pragmatic

and constitutive vehicle for our understanding of the environment as well as our

relationships to the natural world; it is the

symbolic medium that we use in constructing environmental problems and negotiating

society’s different responses to them.”

Studies of EJs

David Sachsman, Joanne Valenti et al.,

• In 2008, only 36 % newspapers, 10% TV stations self-identified staffer as an “environmental reporter”

• (Number has declined drastically since then)

• Half spend only 1/3 of time on environmental issues

• Only 26 % cover environment more than 2/3 of the time • About 24% of Ejs majored in science, compared to 3% of

other journalists / Other attributes - age, gender,

Studies of EJs

• Sachsman, Valenti et al.,

• Men are 2/3 of EJs in 03 survey /

– surprising result / possibly survey error or artifact

• 3/4 of Ejs felt need for more training and education • Most have some undergrad science training

Newsroom cuts impact

• Massive cuts in most newsrooms

2009 Boston Globe laid off entire science and environment unit, WSJ layoffs, many others -- often Ejs & SWs are first to go

• Many publications folding or shifting to digital

– Seattle Post Intelligencer, Rocky Mountain News, Christian Science Monitor

Canadian EJ

• Long tradition of great environmental

writing in Canada – Farley Mowatt (fiction),

Gray Owl (nature); Fifth Estate’s

Denial

Machine

(CBC); Chris Turner’s

Geography

of Hope

; Andrew Nikiforuk’s

Tar Sands

• Since the economic meltdown, quantity of

EJ greatly reduced and media have

Needed: More outreach

• Not only will we have to re-invent the

economic model of journalism, but we will also have “ reinvent the

conversation about journalism, making it less internal to the profession, and more interactive with the rest of

society.”

Increasing need for public

understanding of science

-- Vannevar Bush -- Jacob Bronowski

-- Two Cultures CP Snow -- Carl Sagan

and

-- several examples

The democratic process and the applications of science … are intimately intertwined, for

science does not operate in a

vacuum… Discussions on the air or at the corner store revolve

about these two central

subjects… (which are always) in the background. They determine our destiny, and well we know it.”

Science & democracy linked

“If we are anything we must be a democracy of

the intellect. We must not perish by the distance between people and power, by which Babylon

and Egypt and Rome failed. And that distance

can only be closed if knowledge sits in the homes and heads of people with no ambition to control others, and not in isolated seats of power.”

-- Jacob Bronowski, 1956 and 1973

“The world today is … powered by science… To abdicate an interest in science is to walk with eyes

“Intellectual life … is increasingly

being split into two polar groups … literary intellectuals and scientists … (who) can’t talk to each other.” The gap should be closed “for the

sake of Western society living

precariously rich among the poor, and for the sake of the poor, who needn’t be poor if there is

intelligence in the world.”

-- The Two Cultures, C.P. Snow, 1959

"I have a foreboding of ... a (future) service and information economy ... when

awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one

representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in

authority ...

The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the

enormously influential media … "

What if Sagan could train

an environmental reporter?

-- Represent the public interest -- ask knowledgeable questions

-- grasp the issues and understand the range of possibility and opinion

… without getting baffled by complexity

Science literacy

• For every five hours of cable news, less than a minute is devoted to

science

• The number of newspapers with

weekly science sections has shrunken by two-thirds over the past several

decades.

• 46 percent of Americans deny

Scientific literacy

“Wind power uses more energy that it produces” – Typical comment at a Ta zewell VA public hearing on wind farm siting, May 2009.

“Climate change is a hoax” -- 700,000 hits on Google August 2009

“Sunlight isnt some magical free resource that we can just catch: most of it is already being used to power the biosphere. Ta ke some away, say by building massive solar farms, and you have just that much less biosphere trying, and eventually failing, to support an ever-increasing human population.” -- Blog comment, August 2009

T or F: "Creationism -- that is, the idea that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years”

CLAIM by the Tennessee Valley Authority (US federal utility)

June 30, 2009 Chattanooga Times - Press

Costs of electricity per megawatt hour

–

$25 to $35 coal –

$20 nuclear energy –

$5 to $8 hydro-generation in dams –

$50 to $300 wind and solar energy

Source: TVA Chief Operating Officer Bill McCollum

When questioned, TVA said:

• “The range of costs for renewables reflects the

approximate range of responses TVA received for its December 2008 request for proposals for renewable energy… The costs shown for coal, nuclear and

hydro are O&M and where applicable, fuel costs…”

So …

• So by being uneducated and uncritical, the

newspaper allowed TVA to unethically disadvantage renewable energy.

• _{At a time when society needs new energy sources,}

Scholarship in EJ & SciComm

Sources <--> Channels <--> Audiences

• Quantitative analysis (eg Opinion polling, Content analysis, Co-orientation)

• Qualitative analysis (Frame analysis, focus groups)

Basic issues for EJ

• What is the function / role news media in forming science and environmental policy? (libertarian, social responsibility, “propaganda model,” etc).

• How do journalists translate science for public?

– Problem areas include complexity, uncertainty, conflicting claims, political dimensions

• What is role of ideology & advocacy in EJ?

– When do emergency conditions supercede

Basic issues for EJ

• Professionals have long been concerned with “issue fatigue”

• In other words, how do we avoid THIS?

Content analysis:

David Weintraub, USC MA thesis, 2007

2007 survey 432 articles on climate using 9

dimensions of risk established (Slovic) and frame analysis (Gamson) found:

-- Risk: n/a (45%), severe (35%), future (33%), immediate (21%), catastrophic (15%) and nonhuman life (14%).

-- Frames: political (44%), consequences (22%), and scientific (10%).

Audience analysis:

Erin Marlowe, MA, U. of Missouri, 2005 thesis

• Seeing Red in Green News-- political ideology and partisanship are factors in

credibility assessments and perceived bias in environmental news. …

Audience analysis (cont):

Erin Marlowe, MA, University of Missouri, 2005 thesis

• Study supports “hostile media” phenomenon, -- highly partisan individuals judge media to be biased against their side and favorable to their opponents…

• Journalists can ensure wider acceptance of a message by writing moderately and including suggestions of solutions to environmental

Translating science

• Cronje – ‘Just the facts’ framing backfires

• Russill -- Borrow from health rhetoric

• Moyers -- Borrow from religious rhetoric

• Dunwoody – Use weight of evidence

• Meyers -- Use precision journalism

Framing strategies

• “Science is dynamic … A "just the facts" strategy can and often does backfire, ultimately fueling public

alienation from science. When scientists inform the public of "facts" … the public is justifiably confused. Studies

suggest that the public tends to regard normal scientific refinement and self-correction as equivocation or

incompetence Instead of sweeping uncertainty under the rug, science communicators should help the public understand the logical and systematic procedures by

Framing strategies

British and American sources now seek to structure public understanding of climate change by issuing “tipping point” forewarnings of danger with increasing frequency. This emerging trend announces a shift in the way we are likely to perceive and respond to climate change dangers. This paper reviews key statements to suggest a significant

dimension of this trend is its enrollment of

epidemiological terminology to communicate urgent and uncertain threats.

Framing strategies / risk comm

1988

2006

2008

How to reach fundamentalist Christians who doubt evolution? How would I get them to hear me?

I might interview a scientist who is also a person of faith and ask how he or she might frame the subject in a way to catch the attention of other believers.

I might interview a minister who would couch the work of today’s

climate and biodiversity scientists in a biblical metaphor: the story of Noah and the flood, for example.

The parallels of this parable are wonderful to behold. Both scientists and Noah possess knowledge of a potentially impending global catastrophe. They try to spread the word, to warn the world, but are laughed at, ridiculed. You can almost hear some philistine telling old Noah he is nothing but a “gloom and doom

environmentalist” … -- Bill Moyers at SEJ 2005

Sharon Dunwoody

Weight of evidence

Objectivity and balance are … normative

behaviors (which) do not survive haphazardly within occupations…

Dunwoody --

weight of evidence

… Another strategy that would permit journalists to retain their emphasis on objectivity and balance but still share with their audiences a sense of

where “truth” might lie, at least at that moment. I call this strategy “weight-of-evidence” reporting. It calls on journalists not to determine what’s true

Phil Myers

Precision Journalism

Meyers suggests we are developing a new concept of objectivity and journalistic method. We follow events, observe the patterns, and formulate

Meyers --

precision journalism

Most professional journalists follow an

objective scientific standard of replicability. They inform their investigations with

theories about the underlying causes of

Levels of reporting

(Mencher, Myers)

1. Event -- objective reporting

2. Pattern -- beat coverage, interpretative reporting

3. Structure – investigative reporting,

Advocacy vs objectivity

• Socially responsible journalism involves value judgments and inherent commitments that are evident in how issues are framed.

• _Examples:

– Police reporting - individuals are innocent until proven guilty, but pattern or system rarely questioned

– Sports and business reporting often entails boosterism

Advocacy v Objectivity

“Environmental journalists are expected to be advocates for changes to improve the quality of the planet.” – WWF on EJ

– What do we lose by giving up objectivity? What do we gain?

– Does the “objectivity” model get in the way of the truth?

– Does EJ itself need more advocacy?

Levels of Advocacy

• Level 1 -- Event / Issue advocacy -- How do we report debate about risk from a specific activity or pollution source?

• Level 2 -- Pattern / Agenda advocacy -- Should environmental issues be placed

higher on the policy agenda? Which ones?

• “Ecotage” or “monkeywrenching.” (Edward Abbey)

• T. Wagner found 155 news stories 1984 to 2006.

• Shift in framing “ecotage” as “ecoterrorism” starting in 2001, but

before 9/11.

• Increasingly the discourse of fear has been used to indicate the seriousness of ecoterrorism.

• Volume of stories increased while number of reported incidences declined

– Travis Wagner Environmental Comm 2:1 2008

• Notes: Stories tended to justify 20+ year sentences

• Recent ecotage in Petrolia seen as “vandalism” by London FP while in the US it might be seen as “ecoterrorism” – Why?

Spectrum of professional

approaches

• Positivistic / traditional journalism

– Just the facts – let the chips fall where they may

• Social responsibility theory /

– Facts plus conscious framing, interpretation, weight of evidence, precision reporting

• Social construction of reality / post - modernist perspective

– Facts as can best be determined, point of view clearly stated

• Propaganda model

In conclusion…

• Environmental journalism is important, it was maturing, but it is getting lost in the economic crisis (losing both coverage and jobs)

• The urgency of the climate crisis is a challenge to our ideas about neutrality

• Public interest, seeking truth without fear or favor – in various ways – is the bottom line of good journalism