New Zealand Environmental Campaign Management and News Media Coverage

Abstract

The ability of environmental groups to attract and achieve positive news media coverage is a vital feature of successful environmental campaign management. The environment has become an increasingly newsworthy terrain for journalists but a history of antagonism between journalists and environmentalists, as well as more recent pressures of journalistic staff cutbacks, increased productivity demands, and high rotation of ‗rounds‘, has meant that the cultivation of media contacts remains a challenging task for environmental groups. In the organisation of campaigns, groups must choose their modes of environmental advocacy (Cox 2006) in accord with their objectives, and incorporate an appropriate news media strategy. This study assesses, through an analysis of two New Zealand environmental campaigns, the benefits and challenges associated with framing the environment in a positive way as a site of celebration where local community formation can occur. The study will also investigate the nature of the relationship between local, national and global levels of environmental campaign management. In addition, the study will analyse the level of alignment or accord between the campaign framing and the subsequent news media coverage, including journalist and source relations, the varying treatments of the campaigns by different levels of media (local/metropolitan/national) and types of media (print/broadcast). While much recent attention has focused on national and global political difficulties associated with the implementation of legislative changes in order to reduce carbon emissions, particularly in the context of the failure of the Copenhagen climate change discussions, it remains the case that many environmental groups continue to implement campaigns that are directed at the level of the local and seek to foster and enhance environmental stewardship through community formation. Such campaigns often seek to frame the environment as a site of celebration and enjoyment, even though they may be informed by a global consciousness about the threats of climate change and the problems associated with an economic system based upon the perpetual exploitation of non-renewable resources. As has been noted previously, framing (Goffman 1974) involves the construction of interpretative schemas, through which issues can be understood: they are ‗the most basic process of managing