U.S. Newspapers and Their Role in the Environmental Movement

The publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring helped to create nationwide momentum towards environmentalism, and ultimately the American environmental movement emerged in the late 1960s. From that era to early the 2000s, newspapers were primary sources of news and information. The media—including newspapers, television, and internet—can influence saliency and the public's perception of an issue. In this study, the researchers analyzed how U.S. newspapers from 1970 to 2010 informed the public's awareness and perceived risk of environmental issues.

In this study, the authors applied three theories of media production: 1) gatekeeping, 2) agenda setting, and 3) credibility. During the gatekeeping phase, the organization decides which information is published and which is not. Agenda setting, similar to gatekeeping, makes the reader aware of a certain topic, without providing any information that alters readers' perception or attitude. Agenda setting is the process of shifting an issue from media agenda to public agenda through publication. Second-level agenda setting, or risk dimension, often includes beneficial and/or harmful components of the issue that may influence readers' opinions. For example, agenda setting may state that some farmers use pesticides on their agricultural crops while second-level agenda setting (risk dimension) may inform the reader that pesticide use can cause human health issues. Through risk dimension, media can influence how the reader perceives the problem. Risk perception is subjective and identifies how people react to potential danger. For example, coastal residents in the U.S. will have a high perceived risk of hurricanes while residents living in central and land-locked states will demonstrate a low perceived risk. Finally, the third theory, credibility, focuses on where the information in the story came from. If readers trust the source, they are more likely to believe the content than if they are unfamiliar with the origin of information.

The researchers analyzed environmental articles in seven newspapers from January 1, 1970 to April 30, 2010. Among the seven newspapers, they chose three local papers—St. Petersburg Times, Denver Post, and San Francisco Chronicle—and four national papers—the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and Christian Science Monitor. The authors chose the newspapers based on the accessibility of archived articles and the newspapers' ranking on Poytner.org News Trust web site. After randomly sampling environmental articles in the seven newspapers during the applicable time frame, the researchers analyzed 2,123 environmental news articles. Using the three media theories, the authors analyzed the articles to determine: 1) whether the article mentioned an environmental issue alone or paired it with another topic (i.e. health, economy, or politics); 2) the associated risk perception; and 3) the perceived credibility of the article. Next, the authors applied statistical analysis to demonstrate differences in risk dimension across the newspapers.

The researchers concluded that national newspapers in this study that reported on environmental topics often included a link to politics, while most of the local newspapers in this study focused on a single environmental issue. Two of the local newspapers printed articles mainly dedicated to just one environmental issue—water. The other five newspapers primarily published environmental articles that placed the issues in a larger political context.

Most of the articles in the study cited politicians as the primary source of environmental information for news content. Among types of sources cited in environmental articles, both the local and national newspapers in this study cited politicians most frequently at 36.7% and 32%, respectively. The authors argued that because most readers have minimal connection to politicians, readers may feel disconnected from the issue and rely on others to advocate for the environment, rather than changing their own behavior.

Although the authors analyzed over 2,000 articles, this only accounts for approximately 3-16% of the environmental news articles published in the selected newspapers. Furthermore, this study only researched seven newspapers, omitting hundreds of other U.S. news publications and making it difficult to generalize across all newspaper organizations. Newspapers from other regions may implement different risk dimensions or rely on other credibility sources, thus influencing readers' perceptions in different ways than this study concluded.

While newspapers served as a primary source of environmental news and knowledge for many years, their political focus and failure to describe risks associated with anti-environmental behaviors may have disconnected readers from the environment. Framing issues with risk dimension can deliver key information about the benefits or risks of an environmental issue, helping readers/viewers to form opinions and influence choices. Media outlets seeking to persuade readers/viewers to adopt pro-environmental behaviors should use credible sources other than politicians and link the environmental issue to a salient topic, such as human health.