Commercial Television News Gatekeepers and Their Attitudes Toward Environmental News: A Survey
PREFACE
by Dale Arthur Willman
This thesis is the product of several years labor. Its genesis was a frustration on the part of the author concerning the lack of environmental reporting in the traditional media.
The figures are astounding, as you will find as you read this document. For example, on commercial network television news, less than three percent of the stories covered are environmental stories. And the coverage by other media is similar. This, while every survey seems to show a professed desire on the part of Americans for more environmental information.
In other words, despite an interest for all things environmental, what the public gets is little if any such news. And that which it does receive is often lacking in the basic information needed to inform the engaged listener/viewer about the issue. Or worse yet, it's simply coverage responding to some environmental crisis, rather than forward-looking coverage that might provide insight into any of the myriad of significant environmental issues facing us today.
This will only change, I'm convinced, when the citizenry becomes outraged over this problem and begins demanding more, and better, environmental coverage.
I'm hopeful this will happen.
This work was completed through the generous support of Dr. Bob Thomas and his Center for Environmental Communications at Loyola University. Programs such as LUCEC are at the forefront of efforts to begin a conversation about the environment among citizens, politicians and business leaders. LUCEC, and programs like it, are what give me hope.
Effective change begins not in Washington D.C., but at the grassroots level. The discussion begun at LUCEC continues as those involved move beyond New Orleans. It will spread across the country, and someday we'll be having larger discussions and finding common ground, rather than arguing and resolving nothing. And when that happens, the media will have no choice but to begin to cover these issues in the way in which they should be covered -- by providing truth and hope, rather than fire and dread.
I look forward to that time. My children, and yours, deserve it. It is for them that I conducted my work, and it is to them that it is dedicated.
Thanks for your interest. Please feel free to get in touch with any questions you may have.
Peace,
Dale Willman
Willman Thesis
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Title Page (MS Word)
- Acknowledgements (MS Word)
- Dedication (MS Word)
- List of Tables (MS Word)
- List of Figures (MS Word)
- Table of Contents (MS Word)
- Thesis (MS Word)
