Environmental issues represent a very low proportion of all stories covered by newspapers; these stories also suffer from content limitations. No coverage of environmental issues in the popular media is likely to be a straight forward treatment of the facts due to many practical constrains, some of which are inherent in the structure and values of modern news reporting. Some of these constrains are: misreporting or miscommunication, low levels of journalistic training in science reporting and writing, media time and space constrains and commercial pressures. The objectives guiding the study are: how regularly are environmental conservation stories published and why they are not published as regularly and with such prominence as other stories of political and entertainment nature. A descriptive survey design will be used. This involves content analysis per se primarily as a tool of data collection. Purposive sampling dictated the choice of THE DAILY NATION and THE STANDARD as newspapers whose content shall be analyzed. The selection of media outlets was based on popularity and the number of published copies and the rating of selected newspapers. The period under analysis will be between the month of May and June.
Conservation and sustenance of the environment has become one of the pressing issues facing humanity today with environmental and conservation education and awareness being regarded as one of the measures of halting the conflict between human and nature. According to Canadian Environmental Grantmakers’ Network, solving today's challenging local and global environmental issues and moving society towards conservational efforts cannot rest only with “experts” but will require the support and active participation of an informed public in their various roles as consumers, voters, employers, and business and community leaders. Thus, mass media should become an indispensable partner in global conservation and management through their various roles of not only increasing awareness on the problems and challenges towards environmental conservation and sustainability.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Background
1.3 Problem statement
1.4 Objectives
1.5 Specific objectives
1.6 Research questions
1.7 Justifications
1.8 Scope and limitations of the study
1.9 Definition of terms
Chapter 2
2.1 Literature review
2.2 Introduction
2.3 Theoretical framework
2.4 Conceptual framework
2.5 Critique
2.6 Summary
2.7 Research gaps
Chapter 3
3.1 Research design and methodology
3.2 Introduction
3.3 Research design
3.4 Sample selection
3.5 Sampling technique
3.6 Coding frame
Chapter 4
4.1 Data analysis and presentation
4.2 Introduction
4.3 Results
4.4 Results for individual papers
4.5 Analysis of space occupied by environmental stories
4.6 Space allocation for individual papers
4.7 Analysis of space by environmental concerns within 8 copies carrying such stories
4.8 Analysis of space occupied by environmental concerns in each paper
Chapter 5
5.1 Summary, conclusion and recommendation
5.2 Introduction
5.3 Summary
5.4 Conclusion
5.5 Recommendation
5.6 Suggestions for further studies
Research Objectives and Thematic Focus
The primary objective of this research is to quantitatively evaluate how Kenyan newspapers report on environmental conservation issues, assessing the frequency and space allocation of such stories to determine if the current level of coverage is sufficient.
- Frequency of environmental conservation reporting in Kenyan print media.
- Comparative analysis of coverage between the Daily Nation and The Standard.
- The influence of media space allocation as a metric for news prominence.
- Challenges and constraints in environmental journalism, including commercial and editorial pressures.
- Gap between scientific discovery/conservation information and public awareness.
Excerpt from the Book
1.2 BACKGROUND
Conservation and sustenance of the environment has become one of the pressing issues facing humanity today with environmental and conservation education and awareness being regarded as one of the measures of halting the conflict between human and nature. According to Canadian Environmental Grantmakers’ Network (2006), solving today's challenging local and global environmental issues and moving society towards conservational efforts cannot rest only with “experts” but will require the support and active participation of an informed public in their various roles as consumers, voters, employers, and business and community leaders.
Thus, mass media should become an indispensable partner in global conservation and management through their various roles of not only increasing awareness on the problems and challenges towards environmental conservation and sustainability.
Conservation issues should begin to gain prominence in the media. The role of the media in building environmental friendly civil society and practically assisting in solving local problems by providing the public and decision makers with information for informed participation in decision-making is crucial, the press is thus an important channel to reach decision-makers and opinion leaders.
Chapter Summaries
Chapter 1: This chapter provides the background for the research, outlining the problem statement, objectives, and the scope of the study regarding environmental reporting.
Chapter 2: This chapter reviews relevant literature and establishes the theoretical framework based on agenda-setting, priming, and framing theories.
Chapter 3: This chapter details the research design, specifically a descriptive case study using content analysis to examine Kenyan newspaper reports.
Chapter 4: This chapter presents the data analysis and results, comparing the frequency and space occupied by environmental stories in the chosen newspapers.
Chapter 5: This chapter summarizes the key findings, draws conclusions about the dismal state of environmental reporting, and provides recommendations for improvement.
Keywords
Environmental conservation, mass media, newspapers, content analysis, agenda-setting, Daily Nation, The Standard, environmental journalism, public awareness, biodiversity, sustainable development, media coverage, Kenya, reporting frequency, space allocation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this research project?
The research investigates the role of Kenyan print media, specifically the Daily Nation and The Standard, in informing the public about environmental conservation issues.
What are the central themes discussed in the work?
The work explores media's responsibility in environmental education, the agenda-setting function of news outlets, and the disconnect between environmental crises and public media consumption.
What is the primary objective of this study?
The main objective is to quantitatively measure how frequently newspapers in Kenya report on environmental conservation and to evaluate whether this attention is sufficient given the importance of the subject.
Which scientific research method does the author employ?
The author uses a descriptive survey design utilizing content analysis as the primary tool for data collection, specifically analyzing news articles over a 30-day period.
What does the main body of the work cover?
The body covers a review of theoretical frameworks like agenda-setting, a detailed methodology for content analysis, the systematic presentation of data gathered from newspapers, and a subsequent critique of the findings.
How would you characterize the work using keywords?
The work is characterized by terms such as environmental conservation, agenda-setting, media coverage, Kenyan newspapers, and content analysis.
What did the analysis of the newspapers reveal regarding space allocation?
The study found that only 4.8% of examined newspaper copies contained environmental stories, and only 1.17% of the total available space in those copies was dedicated to environmental concerns.
How does the author interpret the difference between the two newspapers studied?
The author notes that the Daily Nation reported more stories (five) compared to The Standard (three) during the study period, indicating a discrepancy in how different media houses prioritize environmental topics.
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- Joshua Ochieng (Autor), 2015, Media Coverage of Environmental Conservation Issues, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/380297
