Introduction about Mark Schleifstien

-- Bill

I think the role in which media plays in environmental protection is undervalued. Many of the cases involving courts and environmental justice have been surfaced through reporters and media covering the issue. One of the most effective tools for raising awareness to the public about the health (or its decline) of our natural environment is through media and news. If there weren’t media in the past I wonder how the environmental movement would have even started. To have effective and scientific reporting, there needs to be a designated position on a newspaper or media staff that focuses on the environment and surrounding issues. Maybe just social justice and all it encompasses would suffice as a category for media to highlight, because the environment and the way we manage it is certainly a component over this over-arching theme.

-Jackie

    Environmental journalists have an incredible responsibility to accurately report on environmental issues and hazards.  What makes it even more difficult is that by being a reporter, you are asked to represent both sides, even if one has a much stronger case than the other.  Take the example of covering climate change.  Many reporters have tried to cover the issue, but to be fair try to give both sides – this has been a big contribution to keeping the “controversial” aspects of the issues afloat.  This was covered well in the chapter.  I also agree with something else that was noted in this chapter that, “More often they have lacked drama… are often unseen.  Or the story might change so imperceptibly as to nearly be invisible, such as the disappearance of another animal or plant species.”  It must be extremely difficult to cover some of the most pressing issues like species extinction because of the difficulty in making the story appealing or “sexy.”

    I found it really interesting how there are more environmental journalists in the print field than in the television field.  Do you think that is because many of these issues are hard to take a picture or video of – they are more written stories that visual stories?

    I also strongly agree that many of the environmental stories are more focused on the major problem events or situations than actual problems, and not helping to explain the issues clearly for readers to be able to understand them better

    I feel that the connections between population growth and resource consumption/environmental degradation are never fully covered and explained – Americans don’t want to acknowledge that it is them and the rest of the developed world that are causing the severe environmental degradation in the developing world, not those nations’ people and their growth in population.  So many people don’t realize that our extreme levels of consumption cannot be satisfied by our production levels here in America, so we must take massive amounts  of resources from the developing world to meet our demand.

    Lastly, I would have to agree with Jackie in that “the role in which media plays in environmental protection is undervalued.”  Stories that are covered and how the issues are covered could significantly change not only opinions and education levels on the issues, but also human attitudes and behavior.

- Angie

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