Improving press coverage of environmental risk

Abstract

Continuing education programs are needed to provide journalists with an understanding of risk assessment, and the preparation required to produce ac curate, professional coverage of environmental problems. The key audience for such programs is general assignment and local-beat reporters and their editors, rather than specialized science and environmental writers. In conducting such educational programs, the researchers learned that reporters and editors auto matically think in terms of the traditional journalistic determinants of news, rather than the scientific degree of risk. Journalists and news sources often col lide because they make assumptions based on their own very different defini tions and expectations. News sources wishing to influence media coverage should adjust their messages according to the needs of journalists: to achieve this, they too can benefit from continuing education programs.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Davies, J.C. , Covello, V.T. and Allen, F.W. (Editors), 1987. Risk Communication: Proceedings of the National Conference on Risk Communication. The Conservation Foundation, Washington, DC.

Greenberg, B.S. and Parker, E.B. (Editors), 1965. The Kennedy Assassination and the American Public: Social Communication in Crisis. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

Greenberg, M.R. , Sachsman, D.B. , Sandman, P.M. and Salomone, K.L. , in press. Network evening news coverage of environmental risk. Risk Analysis.

Lazarsfeld, P.F. , Berelson, B. and Gaudet, H. , 1948. The People's Choice (2nd ed.). Columbia University Press, New York .

MacDougall, C. , 1977. Interpretative Reporting (7th ed.). MacMillan, New York.

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health , 1985. NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards (DHHS [NIOSH] Publication No. 78-210). US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

Sachsman, D.B. (Producer) , 1985. Covering an Environmental Accident [Videotape]. Available from the Environmental Communication Research Program, Cook College, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ.

Sachsman, D.B. , Greenberg, M.R. and Sandman, P.M. (Editors), 1988. Environmental Reporter's Handbook. Available from the Environmental Communication Research Program, Cook College, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ.

Sachsman, D.B. , Sandman, P.M. , Greenberg, M.R. and Salomone, K.L. , 1988. Environmental risk reporting: hypotheticals teach skills . Journalism Educator, 43 (2): 57-59, 77.

10.

Sandman, P.M. , Sachsman, D.B. and Greenberg, M.R. , 1987a. The Environmental News Source: Informing the Media during an Environmental Crisis. Available from the Environmental Communication Research Program, Cook College, Rutgers- The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ.

11.

Sandman, P.M. , Sachsman, D.B. , Greenberg, M.R. and Gochfeld, M. , 1987b. Environmental Risk and the Press: an Exploratory Assessment . Transaction Books, New Brunswick, NJ.

12.

Schramm, W. (Editor), 1954. The Process and Effects of Mass Communication. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL.

13.

Siederer, J.E. , 1988. Telephone survey of newspaper editors and reporters. Unpublished manuscript, Environmental Risk Reporting Project, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ.

14.

Valenti, J.M. , 1987. Environmental risk reporting project: press kit evaluations. Unpublished manuscript, Environmental Risk Reporting Project, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ.