Public Disengagement from Environmental Issues in Relation to Their Media Coverage
DOI :
https://doi.org/10.23882/MJ2029Mots-clés :
climate change, disengagement, environmental crisis, journalistic norms, media coverageRésumé
The environmental crisis and climate change belong to a group of topics that appear not to be receiving as much media attention as some other issues, e.g. politics, economy, finance, and social and ethnic issues. Too often side-lined, even if environment gets some scope in news and documentaries, it is not always presented comprehensively enough. Although environmentalists and eco-philosophers are constantly – and ever more urgently – pointing to what they describe as an alarming situation at hand, it seems that most of the public has adopted a rather indifferent (disengaged) posture towards news about an imminent environmental crisis, climate change, global warming, the use of plastic etc. Public discourse and media discourse have been increasingly intertwined, so ordinary people acquire most information (not only) on environmental issues from the mass media: press, internet, radio and TV, particularly from newscast and documentaries. This paper will discuss possible relations between presentation of environmental issues in the media and attitudes held by their audience. We believe that the media must assume their part in creating public awareness of environmental issues. Our paper will be based on interdisciplinary, predominantly theoretical research involving the combination of media studies and media philosophy. We will discuss main features of this issue from the viewpoint of media-centric theories, since we maintain that effects of the mass media on empirical and social reality (including environmental issues) are beyond any doubt.
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(c) Tous droits réservés Juraj Skačan 2020
Ce travail est disponible sous licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale 4.0 International.
