Tigere Chagutah BSc, DMCS, MCMS Environment Researcher-Writer SARDC-IMERCSA
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Transcript of Tigere Chagutah BSc, DMCS, MCMS Environment Researcher-Writer SARDC-IMERCSA
Environmental reporting in the Environmental reporting in the Zimbabwean pressZimbabwean press
Environment Africa Media WorkshopEnvironment Africa Media Workshop 25 – 26 April 2007 25 – 26 April 2007
Harare Harare
Tigere Chagutah BSc, DMCS, MCMS
Environment Researcher-Writer
SARDC-IMERCSA
This SessionThis Session
BackgroundPatterns of coverageStory characteristicsHidden elementsWhy the current status?
BackgroundBackground
Defining the environmentDefining the environment The simple and the technical Examples -Everything that surrounds anything
- The complex set of physical, geographic, biological, social, cultural and political conditions that surround an individual or organism and that ultimately determines its form and nature of its survival
- Chenje et al “components of the earth, including air, land and water, all layers of the atmosphere, all organic and inorganic matter and living organisms, and the interacting systems that include all of these components.”
Categorising the environmentCategorising the environment
News organisations employ rhetorical news classification (Beats)
All encompassing nature of environment requires multidimensional analysis which is not possible in a 600 word story and in a straight jacket news beat
Environment is thus reported in other news frames amenable to strict word limits and restrictions imposed by gatekeepers
The urban environmentThe urban environment
Growing urban settlements concentrated around areas of economic activity
Industrial and domestic activity puts pressure on resources such as land/water
Large volumes of chemical and biological waste
Mushrooming of slum populations and unplanned urban agriculture
Operation Murambatsvina
The rural environmentThe rural environment
Skewed land tenure has led to high population densities, overgrazing and general over exploitation in some areas and under utilisation in others
Climate extremes exacerbated land degradation
Land reform – mismanagement has worsened the problem in some areas
Putting the environment on Putting the environment on the media agendathe media agenda
“Were the [African] media to be faced with the choice of covering either the natural or the political environment, they should, without any hesitation choose the latter, for in the African context, the mismanagement of the political sphere is the more imminent calamity” – Okigbo 1995
Role of advertisers, politics, sources, advocacy, etc
Patterns of coveragePatterns of coverage
Issue/Beat coverageIssue/Beat coverage
Absolute numbers (TSM above, TS below) show considerable coverage on environmental issues
During this period political considerations play a significant role (consider Op M coverage)
Crime news is dominant
Crime48%
Environment23%
Politics19%
Clean up10%
Crime
28%
Environment
20%
Politics
31%
Clean up
21%
Cycle of coverageCycle of coverage
Cyclic coverage (Issue attention Cycle - same observed for other news beats)
Zero-sum game complementarity – limited space on media agenda
Clean up coverage sustained in TS below (political import)
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Environment Clean up
Front Page storiesFront Page stories
Political stories dominant – The commercial imperative
Clean up stories show political leaning
Environment least favoured as attention grabber
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Crime/Courts Environment Politics Clean up
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Story characteristicsStory characteristics
Use of picturesUse of pictures
Both papers show high level of picture use ( about 50%) in environmental stories - illustrative
Stand alone pictures often used for environmental stories and rarely in other beats
“a picture is worth more than a thousand words.” OR simplification??
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100%
Crime/Courts Politics
Stand-alone picture
Story w ith picture
No picture
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100%
Crime/Courts Politics
Stand-alonepictureStory w ith picture
No picture
Type of storiesType of stories
Hard news story dominates across beats
Environmental news also dominantly hard news although there are features (not nearly enough as this is the most appropriate story type for environmental news)
Lack of editorials shows editors preoccupation with other issues
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Crime/Courts Politics
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Editorial
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Environment story Environment story characteristicscharacteristics
Type of environment storiesType of environment stories
Hard news format shows a tendency towards covering trigger events, disasters and breaking news etc and less of slowly evolving issues and analyses which do well as features
Lack of editorials in TSM (above) shows no concern with enviro issues at the highest level in newsroom
Editorial0%
Feature14%
New s62%
Other24%
Editorial3%
Feature6%
New s67%
Other24%
Themes in environment Themes in environment storiesstories
Uniformity Water and sanitation
in major cities reflected
2007 energy crisis Climate and health
related concerns during period of study reflected
Water and sanitation
42%
Biodiversity Conservation
8%
Energy8%
Climate12%
Human habitat6%
Environment related health
issues12%
Other12%
Water and sanitation
49%
Energy6%
Climate15%
Human habitat15%
Biodiversity Conservation
15%
Environment story headlinesEnvironment story headlines
Significant number of non-specific headlines
Attempt to frame story in favoured news frames
Environment specif ic
headlines74%
Non environment
specif ic headlines
26%
Environment specific
headlines
59%
Non environment
specific headlines
41%
Hidden elementsHidden elements
CDA used to unearth dominant news frames
- Risk, Uncertainty, Fear, Crisis
- Government sources used predominantly (officialdom brings credibility)
- Less independent sources and advocacy groups and environment NGOs
• Pictures also used for framing eg Minister mugshot for credibility
Why the current status? Why the current status? (Concluding views from interviews)(Concluding views from interviews)
Environment news not commercially viable Lack of competence of reporters = lack of
motivation – few want to venture into env reporting therefore very few stories forwarded to news Eds
Other beats command better readership and env is a ‘special interest category’
Lack of resources for going to the site of the story Lack of opportunity for training and no networks or
fora for env reporters etc