The Representation of Environmental News
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THE REPRESENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE MALAYSIAN AND NEW ZEALAND PRESS A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Journalism in the University of Canterbury by Nik Norma Nik Hasan University of Canterbury 2007 i Table of Contents Acknowledgments.................................................................................iv Abstract...................................................................................................v Glossary .................................................................................................vi List of Tables.........................................................................................vi List of Figures .......................................................................................vi Chapter 1: Introduction........................................................................1 1.1 Overview ...........................................................................................2 1.2 Assumptions ......................................................................................7 1.3 Research Objectives ..........................................................................9 1.4 Definitions ......................................................................................10 1.5 Thesis Outlines ................................................................................11 1.6 Limitations of the Study..................................................................12 1.7 Significance of the Study ................................................................13 Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework ..................................................17 2.1 Agenda Setting and News Construction.........................................17 2.2 Objectivity and Bias ........................................................................23 2.3 The Social Construction of Reality and Environmental Issues......28 2.4 News Sources ..................................................................................36 Chapter 3: Literature Review............................................................46 3.1 The Definition of Environmental (News).......................................46 3.2 Media Representation of Environmental News..............................55 3.3 News Values and Frames................................................................60 3.4 Journalists - News Sources Relationship........................................66 Chapter 4: Methodology.....................................................................73 4.1 Why Content Analysis?...................................................................73 4.1.1 Aims .......................................................................................74 4.1.2 Methods..................................................................................76 4.1.3 Coding Categorization ...........................................................79 4.1.4 Experimental Design..............................................................82 4.2 The In-depth Interviews ..................................................................83 4.2.1 Aims .......................................................................................84 4.2.2 Methods..................................................................................85 4.2.3 Limitations..............................................................................90 Chapter 5: A Comparative Analysis of Environmental News Content between Malaysian and New Zealand .........92 5.1 General characteristics of the environmental news........................92 5.1.1 Level of News Coverage........................................................95 5.1.2 Three Most Common Topics in the Three Levels of Coverage ............................................................................95 5.1.3 Placement of Articles.............................................................96 5.1.4 Focus of Articles ..................................................................101 ii 5.1.5 Author...................................................................................102 5.1.6 Length of Articles ................................................................104 5.1.7 Attachments..........................................................................105 5.2 Content...........................................................................................106 5.2.1 Comprehensiveness of News...............................................106 5.2.2 Content Position...................................................................107 5.2.3 News Sources in Focus Contents.........................................108 5.3 News Sources ................................................................................109 5.3.1 Number of News Sources Use.............................................109 5.3.2 Types of News Sources vs. Newspapers.............................112 5.3.3 Number of News Sources Used and Topic Correlation......113 5.3.4 The Correlation of Number and Types of Sources .............117 5.3.5 The Main News Sources......................................................118 5.3.6 Subsidiary Sources...............................................................120 5.3.7 News Sources Involvement in the Environmental News....120 5.3.8 The Three Main News Sources Quoted in a Range of Topics...............................................................................122 5.4 Topic Selection..............................................................................126 5.4.1 Comparison of the Overall Distribution of Topics .............126 5.4.2 The Distribution of Sub-topics Selection ............................129 5.4.3 Brief Analysis of the Relationship between Topics and Other Variables ..........................................................................130 Chapter 6: A Comparative Analysis of Malaysian and New Zealand In-depth Interviews .............................135 6.1 Introduction ...................................................................................135 6.2 Forces Affecting Environmental Reporting .................................141 6.2.1 Journalists' Lack of Knowledge and Command of Language ......................................................................141 6.2.2 Journalists' Attitudes ..........................................................153 6.2.3 Journalists' Agenda ............................................................163 6.2.4 Circulation..........................................................................168 6.2.5 Newspapers' Agenda..........................................................175 6.2.6 The Editors and Newsroom Culture..................................184 6.2.7 Ownership and Political Will.............................................192 6.2.8 News Sources .....................................................................198 6.2.9 Corporate Interferences......................................................202 6.2.10 Time and Space Constraints ..............................................204 6.2.11 Environment is Viewed as A Source of Conflict..............206 6.3 Conclusions ...................................................................................218 Chapter 7: Discussion and Conclusions.........................................220 Bibliography.......................................................................................254 Appendix 1..........................................................................................278 iii Acknowledgments I wish to express sincere appreciation to my supervisors, Dr. Donald Matheson and Associate Professor Jim Tully for their guidance, assistance and continuous encouragement throughout my difficult time in completing this thesis. I also would like to extend my appreciation to the Malaysian and New Zealand respondents whom have spared their precious time to participate in the interviews; to all my friends for their constructive comments and; everyone whose have direct and indirect contributed to this study. Last but not least, a big thank you to my beloved parents, and family members for their love and support. iv Abstract This comparative study examines trends in the representation of the environment in Malaysian and New Zealand newspapers over an eight year period. By comparing the two media contexts, it explored the role of journalism’s occupational norms, of the relationship between journalists and sources and of media ownership in determining the quality of news coverage of the environment. The sample was made up of eight mainstream newspapers which were selected based on biggest circulation figures, sampled in 1996, 2000 and 2004. The four Malaysian newspapers, all nationally distributed, were the English-language papers The New Straits Times and The Star, and the Malay-language papers Berita Harian and Utusan Malaysia. The four New Zealand newspapers, all regionally distributed, were The Press, The Dominion Post, The New Zealand Herald and The Otago Daily Times. The study employed content analysis as the prime method to observe trends in environmental news; while in-depth interviews with 40 respondents were used to verify from subjects’ experiences the various forces that might cause the trends. Major content analysis findings were that environmental news is underrepresented in both countries and that the news patterns in the two countries are quite similar. The study raised questions about the quality of the news, with much