How Does the Media Influence the Environmental Policy Process? Assessing The Role of Agenda Setting in Kenyan Environmental Disputes (original) (raw)
Related papers
Politics and Governance, 2020
In this article we analyze how media coverage for environmental actors (individual environmental activists and environmental movement organizations) is associated with their perceived policy influence in Canadian climate change policy networks. We conceptualize media coverage as the total number of media mentions an actor received in Canada’s two main national newspapers—the Globe and Mail and National Post. We conceptualize perceived policy influence as the total number of times an actor was nominated by other actors in a policy network as being perceived to be influential in domestic climate change policy making in Canada. Literature from the field of social movements, agenda setting, and policy networks suggests that environmental actors who garner more media coverage should be perceived as more influential in policy networks than actors who garner less coverage. We assess support for this main hypothesis in two ways. First, we analyze how actor attributes (such as the type of actor) are associated with the amount of media coverage an actor receives. Second, we evaluate whether being an environmental actor shapes the association between media coverage and perceived policy influence. We find a negative association between media coverage and perceived policy influence for individual activists, but not for environmental movement organizations. This case raises fundamental theoretical questions about the nature of relations between media and policy spheres, and the efficacy of media for signaling and mobilizing policy influence.
Development, Environmental Policy, and Mass Media: Theory and Evidence
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
This paper investigates the relationship between development, environmental policy determination, and mass media. It stresses the role of mass media as a channel through which the level of development in ‡uence environmental policy making. Special interests appear to wield considerable in ‡uence over environmental policies, and create policy distortion. We develop a model with two political parties competing in election and policy in ‡uence by special interests to study environmental policy determination. Mass media acts as information provider to voters in the election. It informs voters regarding environmental policy platforms announced by the political parties. The theory suggests that, as development progresses, environmental awareness rises and so does the demand for environmental news. This induces pro…t maximizing media …rm to report more environmental news, and in turn keeps voters better informed regarding the policy platforms of the parties. We …nd that, in equilibrium, a more stringent environmental policy is implemented when the voters are better informed through mass media. The model also demonstrates the way in which process of development brings about the stringency of environmental policy at a level closer to the social optimum when special interests present. Empirical evidence across countries supports our …ndings.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of editors in the prioritization of environmental news stories in selected print media in Kenya. When it comes to prioritization of issues in the print media in terms of placement, spatial, and frequency of coverage, the editors' role is vital. This paper was guided by two objectives; 1) to determine the role of editors in the publication of environmental news stories, and 2) to analyze the placement, spatial, and frequency of environmental news stories. The paper was guided by two research questions; 1) what is the role of editors in the publication of environmental stories? 2) In what way do the print media prioritize environmental stories in terms of placement, spatial, and frequency? The study was based on a qualitative research method and used a phenomenology research design. The study use homogenous sampling and the sample size was two environmental editors. Data were collected using in-depth interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. The study found that indeed editors still play significant roles in the gatekeeping functions. When it comes to prioritization of stories, the study established that in terms of story placement, the two newspapers place most environmental stories on minor pages. When it comes to spatial coverage, the study revealed that environmental stories occupy insignificant spaces in the newspaper. When it comes to frequency of coverage, the study further found that environmental stories are not published frequently in the two leading newspapers in Kenya. The study recommends recommended that this research be replicated in various other newspapers such as the Nairobian, the People Daily, and the Start to learn about the phenomenon of print media coverage of environmental stories and its impact on the audience.
Political and Social Agenda in Environmental Policies: Media Effect
DergiPark (Istanbul University), 2021
Öz 21. yüzyılda birey ve toplumlar geleneksel ve yeni nesil kitle iletişim araçlarının belirlediği siyasal ve kültürel çerçevede çevre sorunları ve çözüm önerileri hakkında fikir ve düşüncelerini geliştirmek zorunda kalmaktadır. Çevre sorunlarının dikkat çekmesi ve politik gündemde yer almasının önemli gerekçelerinden birisi, toplumsal bilincin sağlanarak siyasal ve toplumsal karar vericilerin tercih ve önerileri doğrultusunda kamuoyunun oluşmasıdır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, kamu politika süreci ile ilgili olarak bazı çevre sorunlarının siyasal ve toplumsal gündemde yer alırken, bazılarının neden dikkate alınmadığının gerekçelerini irdelemektir. Mevcut siyasal ve yönetsel sistemlerde çevre politikalarının geliştirilmesi ve uygulanmasında birçok unsur etkili olmaktadır. Bu unsurlardan medya son dönemlerde daha fazla öne çıkmaktadır. Bu kapsamda çalışmada medya ve iletişim teknolojilerinin, çevre politikalarının oluşum sürecindeki rolü ve önemi tartışılmaktadır. Çalışmada özellikle çevre sorunlarının politik ve toplumsal gündemde yer alması, medya ve iletişim alanında oluşturulmuş, tanımlanmış değerler ve fikirler tarafından çerçevelendiği tespiti dikkat çekmektedir.
2013
The literature argues that the amount of media coverage of issues sets the public agenda. What sets the media agenda appears to largely be governmental communication. It was hypothesized that governmental actors would attract media to the issue of acid rain. Once coverage started, interest groups would push the media bandwagon for wider sectors of society. This creates a climate of “buzz journalism.” After conflict among interest groups accelerated and the wagon reached optimal speed, governmental actors would brake the issue cycle and media coverage would dissipate. It was further hypothesized that a period of “long-tail journalism” would ensue in which there was little media coverage over the years without this governmentalgenerated buzz of coverage. The plot of the number of stories per year for the next 25 years showed that there was some coverage but very predictable in its residual factual nature with no hooks to policy considerations. Not until again in 2009 was acid rain con...
This project examined the focus of environmental news frames used in seven American newspapers between 1970 and 2010. During this time newspapers were a primary source of news. Based on gatekeeping and agenda-setting theory, as well as source credibility, the content analysis of 2,123 articles examined the environmental topics within the articles, seven possible risk perception dimensions used in the story, and the primary source of information. The national newspapers typically reported an environmental issue paired with policy; local papers reported a single environmental issue. A Chi-square test found significant differences between national and local newspapers’ use of risk dimensions.
We speak for the trees: Media reporting on the environment
Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 2009
This review article surveys the role of the media in communicating environmental issues. Media representations-from news to entertainment-provide critical links between formal environmental science and politics and the realities of how people experience and interact with their environments. People abundantly turn to media-such as television, newspapers, magazines, radio, and Internet-to help make sense of the many complexities relating to environmental science and governance that (un)consciously shape our lives. I examine how multiscale factors have shaped media coverage in complex, dynamic, and nonlinear ways. These inquiries are situated in historical context as well as in larger processes of cultural politics and environmental change. Discussions here also touch on how media portrayals influence ongoing public understanding and engagement. Connections between media information and behaviors are not straightforward, as coverage does not determine engagement. Nonetheless, this article explores how media reports influence the spectrum of possibilities for different forms of environmental governance.
Framing of Climate Change Stories Covered by The Kenyan Daily Nation and The People Daily Newspapers
International Journal of Science and Business, 2021
Data collected through qualitative content analysis method and in-depth interviews of sources of information and journalists from two daily newspapers in Kenya, the Daily Nation and the People Daily on how they framed climate change stories during part of 2012, the year when the Kyoto Protocol was ending, found that although the Kenyan media cover climate change, these articles are placed anywhere but front page, rarely took leadership positions on any given page and scarcely on top left quadrant. In effect the media coverage on climate change may not have prominently displayed climate change articles as to solicit public discourses, failed to support the media advocacy objective of the climate change activists and perhaps contributed to the failure of government not to implement the provision of such key international instruments as the Kyoto Protocol. The study recommended that gate keepers be part of the media advocacy for the Public Relations practitioners. IJSB
Climate Change Impact Representation In Kenya's News Media
2014
oday the questions of adaptation and mitigation to climate change risks are arching their way out to community platforms in an interpretive flow through various communication modes that shape public opinion and mediate scientific commentaries. At the forefront of this process, are news media which facilitate critical public engagement in alternative discourse concerning climate change controversies. However, the question of whether or not the media can lead to informed citizenry that can help communities and governments to enact sustainability measures for society is an elusive one. Some quarters have put reservations on the ecological integrity of media concerning climate change highlights as it plays to the tune of dominant systems of environmental representation, which is biased on framing alarming reports of ecological collapse. Using content analysis of selected media this paper examines climate change reporting and representations in Kenya. Further interviews were done with scientists to examine their perception about climate science reporting in Kenya's mainstream media. It was found that climate change continues to receive low coverage locally, however from time to time when new research findings are published the media are quick to flash out alarmist news. This brings the question of true representation of science in mainstream media; is it a triumph of business over journalistic norms as media are quick to sell and remain relevant? The findings also posit a proactive role yet to be embraced by the media in addressing environmental failures as well as its healing possibilities in bid to tackle the prevailing climate change crisis observed both globally and locally.