Abstract
In the last three decades of the 20th century the world witnessed an increased awareness of the global environment and the impact of human actions. From an environmental perspective, the mass media contributed to the heightened environmental awareness and, rightly or wrongly, focused the attention of the public on specific environmental issues. This vital source of information to the public (the mass media), can take on many forms, including television, magazines, newspapers and pamphlets. In general, newspapers have been found to be one of the most predominant sources of information available to the public. Therefore, this paper focuses on environmental reporting through national newspapers in South Africa and whether the reporting is sufficient to hone public awareness. Copies of two national newspapers, one English (Sunday Times) and one Afrikaans (Rapport) were obtained from the main library in Bloemfontein and were analysed over a two-year period,that is 2007 and 2008. The objectives were to determine the number of environmental articles; the type and/or category of articles and the importance (page number) of articles in both national newspapers. The results were compared and show a very interesting flow of environmental information. Preliminary results indicate that there was a decrease in environmental related articles over the years studied; and that most environmental articles fall into the main category of biodiversity. The Afrikaans paper focused predominantly on national news, while the English paper showed an even distribution between national and international environmental news.
Highlights
Environmental reporting through newspapers in South Africa: A comparative study
The mass media contributed to the heightened environmental awareness and, rightly or wrongly, focused the attention of the public on specific environmental issues
This paper focuses on environmental reporting through national newspapers in South Africa and whether the reporting is sufficient to hone public awareness
Summary
Omgewingsrapportering deur middel van koerante in Suid-Afrika: ’n Vergelykende studie. Hierdie belangrike bron van inligting (die massamedia) vir die publiek kom voor in ’n groot verskeidenheid vorme: dit sluit die televisie, tydskrifte, koerante en pamflette in. Dus fokus hierdie projek op die omgewingsrapportering in nasionale koerante in Suid-Afrika en die vraag of dié soort rapportering genoegsaam is om die publiek se omgewingsbewustheid op te skerp. The mass media contributed to the heightened environmental awareness and, rightly or wrongly, focused the attention of the public on specific environmental issues This vital source of information to the public (the mass media), can take on many forms, including television, magazines, newspapers and pamphlets. This paper focuses on environmental reporting through national newspapers in South Africa and whether the reporting is sufficient to hone public awareness. Die kommunikasie van inligting oor menslike interaksie en die impak op die omgewing is belangrik, want kommunikasie, beide massa- en interpersoonlike kommunikasie, is ’n belangrike sleutel tot die verhoging van openbare omgewingsbewustheid en kennis van die omgewingsprobleme wat kan bydra tot ’n volhoubare toekoms en bewaring van die omgewing vir die toekomstige generasies (Stamm, Clark & Eblacas 2000)
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