A93.
O’Donnell, C. & Rice, R. E. (2008). Coverage of environmental
events in
U.S. and U.K. newspapers: Frequency, hazard, specificity, and
placement. International
Journal of Environmental Studies, 65(5), 637-654.
This study identified and
compared components of the importance of newspaper articles reporting
on
environmental issues and events. Content analysis using 13 categories
of hazard
assessment compared articles published in 2006 by The New York Times
(United States) and The Independent (United Kingdom), finding,
in spite
of the very different national efforts toward environmental issues,
different
number but similar proportional coverage of environmental events. The
most
frequent categories were solutions, costs, concentration, and non-human
being
mortality (experienced, and potential). Such articles were
significantly
(though slightly) closer to the front in The New York Times,
with the content
categories of transgenerational, persistence, delay and
population-at-risk
closer to the front. The only category with significantly
different
proportional frequency of coverage across the two newspapers was
non-human
being mortality (potential). The only categories with
significantly
difference levels of specificity were annual mortality, and costs (both
more
specific), and solutions (more likely non-specific).
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