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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 058 710 EM 009 437 AUTHOR Sachs, David Peter; Rubin, David Mark TITLE Mass Media and the Environment: Volume Two, The Environmental information Explosion: The Press Discovers the Environment. INSTITUTION Stanford Univ., Calif. Dept. of Communication..; Stanford Univ., Calif. School of Medicine. SPONS AGENCY National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. PUB DATE Sep 71 NOTE 322p. EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HC$13.16 DESCRIPTORS *Ecology; Environmental Criteria; *Environmental Education; Environmental Research; *Information Dissemination; *Mass Media; *News Media; Newspapers; Radio; Social Responsibility; Television IDENTIFIERS *San Francisco Bay Area ABSTRACT In an interdisciplinary study the role of the news media in environmental problems is examined. A description of the environmental problems of the San Francisco Bay Area and of the many news media which serve this area introduces this second volume of the study. The dimensions of the information explosion in the Bay Area news media are documented in quantitative terms. The study identifies the groups in the Bay Area which can be expected to use the information offered by the news media and the implications of this for the press. The difficulties for the press in reporting environmental deterioration and the damage caused by "environmental" advertising are pointed out. The study also examined: the difficulties of gaining access to information about the plans of public utilities; the interrelationship of a growing community and its newspapers and the possible effects of newspaper coverage of urban land use patterns; and the possibilities of getting along without the news media and becoming informed on one's own. The study concludes that the media have alerted the public to environmental hazards, but that continued efforts topinpointlocal problems will be necessary. For the extensive background study of the environmental problems of the Bay Area, see volume one of the study (EM009436). (Xi) 9 'tAY '..'''!r..,',..i'..r.t,0 ,o, .1: L I iv, l`k.f611; t ''S; 1 (.,tj, Sti?%tr': t':; . .,77;AA,1"7,,, tv,e.,,t,,,.,.,At...-7-71'",.77,7, A .7 I C° MASS MEDIA AND THE ENVIRONMENT VOLUME II THE ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION EXPLOSION: THE PRESS DISCOVERS THE ENVIRONMENT U.S. DEPARTMENT OFHEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEENREPRO- DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVEDFROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATIONORIG- INATING IT. POINTS OF VIEWOR OPIN- IONS STATED DO NOTNECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICEOF EDU- CATION POSITION OR POLICY. Supported by National Science David Mark Rubin Foundation Grant GZ-1777 David Peter Sachs Project Directors Stanford University September, 1971 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME II PREFACE ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii PROJECT PARTICIPANTS iv INTRODUCTION 1 I The Problems and the Reporters: An Overview The Environmentally-Aware San Francisco Bay Area 1 The Reporters of the Environment 4 2 The Environmental Information Explosion Definitions 2 The San Francisco Chrmicle 3 Twelve Days' Coverage 5 San Francisco Wire Services 8 Covering the Agencies 11 Environmental Advertising 13 Conclusion 16 3 Eco-Activists and the News Media The Survey 1 Conclusions 8 4 The Environment: A Difficult Subject to Cover Pollution, Press Relations and Press Performance 2 Why Media Don't Name Names 21 The Legislative Side of Environmental News 32 Coping with Public Relations Environmental Material 33 The California Water Plan: Public Relations 44 Covering the California Water Plan 47 5 Environmental Advertising and Social Responsibility Eco-Pomography 1 Advertising Versus News: An Effectiveness Study 9 Advertising Acceptance: Standards and Procedures 30 Recommendations 52 Footnotes 55 6 Covering the Nuclear Power Debate: The Press and Public Utilities Constructing Nuclear Power Plants 1 Three California Situations 3 The Content Analysis 4 Quantity of Coverage 7 Quality of Coverage 9 Bodega Head, Rancho Seco, Davenport: Some Conclusions 22 The National Picture 23 Some Suggestions and Conclusions 37 Footnotes 40 3 7 The Press and the Growth Establishment A Case Study of San Jose 1 The Newspaper and Economic Growth 8 f The Newspaper and the Growth Establishment 14 Editorial Comment on the Airport Controversy 27 Editorial Treatment of Public Transit 1 33 News Coverage of Airport and Transit Planing 39 Conclusions and Suggestions 46 Footnotes 48 8 Getting Along Without the Mass Media The Problem 1 The Quest for Information 4 The Cost of Becoming Informed 8 9 Conclusions 1 APPENDICES Bay Area Environment Reporters Mail Questionnaire 1 Responses:Editors 3 Responses:Reporters 6 Description of Sample 10 San Francisco Chronicle Content Analysis Methodology 1 Results 3 The Definition 6 III Eco-Activists and the News Media The Questionnaire and Interview 1 The Sample 2 IV The Environment: A Difficult Subject to Cover Content Analysis, Stanford Air Pollution Report 1 Sample Press Release 3 Questionnaires Covering the CWP 5 V Covering the Nuclear Power Debate Directions to Coders 1 Sample Content Analysis Coding Sheet 3 Questionnaire, Newspaper Editors 4 Questionnaire, Utilities 7 Questionnaire, Opponents 9 VI The Press and the Growth Establishment Method of Telephone Survey 1 Final Survey Questionnaire 3 Method for Content Analysis 4 Coding Sheets and Marginals 9 II PREFACE This research project, on the general subject "Mass Media and the Environment," is unusual in three respects. First, it is an interdisciplinary project linking two fieldscommunication and medicinewhich are not usual partners. Second, it is an experiment by the National Science Foundation in granting research funds directly to graduate students and permitting them to oversee a research project without direct faculty supervision. And third, while it is in part an assessment and critique of media performance, both disciplines offer much information which, we hope, can be put to use immediately by the press and concerned public to help solve environmental problems. For their faith we would like to Lhank Miss Joan Callanan of the National Science Foundation and Fred Honkala (formerly with the Foutdation and now President of Yankton College in South Dakota). For their sponsorship and guidance we thank Profs. William Rivers (Communication) and Joshua Lederberg (Genetics), and Niels Reimers and Frank Newman of Stanford's grant administration office. And for their devotion to the project we thank all .:he Stanford studentsand their wives and husbandswho worked long hours to bring it to a successful conclusion. David M. Rubin David P. Sachs Stanford University 10 September 1971 5. III ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In compiling this report, we frequently resorted to research techniques which can only becompared to the Chinese water torture in their effects on the unfortunate victims.Literally hundreds of working journalists in and out of the Bay Arca cheerfully submitted to our mail questionnaires, telephone interviews, requests for information and access to files, and various other tools of the trade. Toall our deepest thanks, particularly to the following Bay Arca journalists, all of whom cannot bc blamed if they never want tohear the word "environment" again: Robert Burgess (Palo Alto Times Don Harness (KNTV-TV) Chet Casselman (KSFO-radio) Jerry Johnson (KGO-TV) Ken Castle (Fremont Argus) Harry Martin (Contra Costa ames, now with the Napa Register) George Dusheck (KQED-TV) Paul Finch (San Francisco Associated Press David Perlman (San Francisco Chronicle) Skip Garrctson (Oakland Tribune) Ken Rowe (Redwood City Tribune) Jeff Grigsby (San Francisco United Press International) Heidi Schulman (KCBS-radio) Gil Haar (KNEW-radio) John Stanton (Palo Alto Times) Ben Williams (KPIX-TV) And special thanks to Tom Harris of the San Jose Mercury, who should be awarded some sort of medal for bravery in the face of academicians. David M. Rubin September 10, 1971 iv PROJECT PA RTIC I PANTS Although this volume has been edited as a single product, it represents 14 months of dedicated work by 15 individuals from the Stanford Department of Communication and two from Sacramento State College. The following vitae arc provided for readers curious about the identities behind our anonymous third per- son, and for those who may wish to assign praise or blame for work in specific chapters. DAVID M. RUBIN: Project Director and Co-Principal Investigator. (B.A. Columbia '67; M.A. Stanford '68). A former director of Columbia's WKCR-FM in New York, Mr. Rubin has also worked for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Elyria (Ohio) C'hronick-Telegram (on a Wall Street Journal Newspaper Fund Scholarship), and the San Francisco C'hronick (as Stanford stringer for the Sporting Green). He has published in Columbia Journalism ReView and California Newspaper Publisher, and he is co-author with Stanford Professor William L. Rivers of A Region's Press, a critical look at the Bay Area's newspapers. He is currently authoring a mass media introductory textbook for Prentice-Hall with Peter M. Sandman and David B. Sachsman (see below). He will be an assistant professor in the Journalism Department at New York University (Washington Square) in 1971-72. He contributed the material in Chapter VI on public utilities, nuclear power and the press, which is a part of his dissertation for the doctorate. DAVID P. SACHS: Co-Principal Investigator and Project Director for Volume I (B.A. Carleton '67). Mr. Sachs' interest in the environment began in 1958 when he built a plexiglass, working model of a water pollution control plant. He has since worked to develop a chemical method for removing synthetic deter- gents from water supplies, and in the arca of molecular genetics.In 1964 he won an award from Eastman Kodak for a 16 mm. film on the insect world. He has published in McCall's and Saturday Review, and has taught numerous special seminars at Stanford on urban problems. In 1971-72 he will finish the five-year medical program at Stanford prior to internship and a career in environmental medicine.In addition to his academic pursuits, he is an accomplished French horn and organ player. DAVID W. JONES, JR. (B.A.