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Findings: Coverage
Reduced Environmental Coverage by TV and Newspapers
The survey found that 44 percent of television reporters say they are spending less time on environmental stories than one year ago, compared to 13 percent who say they are spending more time.
"Polls continue to show that Americans care about their environment, but editors and news managers tell reporters that those stories just 'don't sell,' " said one journalist at a major market television station.
"It's not the priority it once was with my managers," said another TV journalist.
And a third television reporter warned: "The trend tells me, (the beat is) in serious trouble.....News consultants (advising TV news managers) say that no one cares about E news, but this contradicts what most polls and viewers say."
The survey found that about one-fifth of the environmental journalists working for newsletters, newspapers and magazines also say they are spending less time reporting about environmental issues than one year ago.
Some 23 percent of environmental reporters working for newspapers, 20 percent of newsletter journalists and 19 percent of magazine reporters say they are doing less reporting about environmental issues than one year ago.
By contrast, 17 percent of newspaper journalists, 5 percent of newsletter journalists and 17 percent of magazine reporters say they are spending more time reporting about the environment than one year ago.
The only medium that has experienced an increase in reporting about the environment in the past year is radio, the survey found. Some 41 percent of environmental journalists for radio stations say they are spending more time on environmental issues than last year compared to 6 percent who say they are spending less time on environmental issues.
Lack of resources, time and space seen as "major" problems
Environmental journalists were asked to identify "major" problems they encountered in covering their beat.
The most serious problem environmental reporters say they encounter is lack of adequate resources for research and travel, which was cited as a "major" problem by 38 percent of the journalists. Other problems described as "major" were lack of time, cited by 28 percent; lack of space, cited by 23 percent; and lack of interest by editors, cited by 20 percent. Difficulty in finding unbiased sources was cited as a "major" problem by 10 percent of the journalists.
Problems that the fewest reporters considered "major" included pressure from governmental agencies (2 percent), pressure from environmental groups (3 percent) and pressure from industry (5 percent).
Water pollution and air pollution most covered topics
Reporters were asked to list the five topics they covered "most heavily" in 1995.
The most frequent topic covered by environmental journalists was water pollution, cited by 38 percent of the journalists. Air pollution ranked second in popularity with 34 percent saying they covered this subject in 1995. Other topics covered frequently included land use (27 percent), endangered animals (26 percent), hazardous waste (26 percent) and recycling and wildlife (25 percent each).
Some 20 other topics were covered by fewer than 25 percent of the responding reporters. In descending order of mention they were: public lands (23 percent), wetlands (22 percent), forestry (21 percent), federal legislation (20 percent), solid waste (18 percent), state legislation (17 percent), agriculture (17 percent), energy (15 percent), sustainable development (14 percent), pesticides (12 percent), fishing (11 percent), climate change (9 percent), international issues (9 percent), nuclear power (9 percent), population (6 percent), oil spills (5 percent), defense (3 percent), oceans (2 percent), chemical spills (1 percent) and health issues (1 percent).
findings: coverage