Representations of the Environment on New
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REPRESENTATIONS OF THE ENVIRONMENT ON NEW ZEALAND TELEVISION A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Mass Communication by Rowan Howard-Williams School of Social and Political Sciences University of Canterbury 2009 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS __________________________________________ 4 ABSTRACT _____________________________________________________ 5 1: INTRODUCTION _______________________________________________ 6 1.1: Structure of the Thesis _______________________________________________ 8 2: THE SOCIAL INFLUENCES OF TELEVISION _______________________ 11 2.1: Ideology in the Mass Media __________________________________________ 11 2.1.1: Mass Media in the Market System _________________________________ 11 2.1.2: The Environment in the Dominant Social Paradigm __________________ 12 2.1.3: Media Workers _________________________________________________ 14 2.2: Television’s Impact _________________________________________________ 16 2.2.1: Medium Theory ________________________________________________ 16 2.2.2: Television’s Sense of Place ________________________________________ 17 2.2.3: The Significance of Stories _______________________________________ 19 2.3: Television Narratives _______________________________________________ 20 2.3.1: Ideological Function of Narratives _________________________________ 22 2.3.2: Narratives and the Environment __________________________________ 25 2.4: Effects of Television on Audiences _____________________________________ 26 2.4.1: Cultivation and Cultural Indicators Research _______________________ 26 2.4.2: Mass Society Theory ____________________________________________ 28 2.4.3: The Minimal Effects Model _______________________________________ 29 2.4.4: Agenda-Setting _________________________________________________ 30 2.4.5: Encoding-Decoding _____________________________________________ 32 2.4.6: The Information-Deficit Model ____________________________________ 33 2.4.7: Summary of Media Effects _______________________________________ 35 3: ENVIRONMENT AND MEDIA ____________________________________ 38 3.1: Environmental News Coverage _______________________________________ 38 3.1.1: Environmental Issue Cycles and Narrative Construction ______________ 38 3.1.2: Environmental News Values ______________________________________ 41 3.1.3: News Sources __________________________________________________ 42 3.1.4: Environmental News and Empirical Reality _________________________ 44 3.1.5: News Media and Audience Understanding __________________________ 44 3.2: Broader Approaches to Analysing Media and Environment _______________ 47 3.2.1: Cultural Indicators Research _____________________________________ 50 3.3: National Perspectives on Media and the Environment ____________________ 52 3.3.1: Cultural Differences in Representations of the Environment ___________ 53 2 4: NEW ZEALAND TELEVISION: AN OVERVIEW ______________________ 54 4.1: Television and National Identity ______________________________________ 54 4.2: The New Zealand Media Sector _______________________________________ 55 4.2.1: The Current New Zealand Media Landscape ________________________ 55 4.2.2: Local Content in a Commercial Environment _______________________ 56 5: METHODOLOGY ______________________________________________ 58 5.1: Introduction _______________________________________________________ 58 5.1.1: Definitions _____________________________________________________ 58 5.2: Sampling __________________________________________________________ 59 5.3: Coding and Analysis ________________________________________________ 60 5.3.1: Content Analysis ________________________________________________ 60 5.3.2: Narrative Analysis ______________________________________________ 61 6: CONTENT ANALYSIS __________________________________________ 63 6.1: Non-news Programmes ______________________________________________ 63 6.1.1: Setting and Location ____________________________________________ 64 6.1.2: Funding _______________________________________________________ 65 6.1.3: Episodes _______________________________________________________ 65 6.1.4: Themes _______________________________________________________ 65 6.2: News Programmes __________________________________________________ 67 6.2.1: Setting and Location ____________________________________________ 68 6.2.2: Episodes _______________________________________________________ 69 6.2.3: Themes _______________________________________________________ 69 6.3: Environmental Episodes _____________________________________________ 71 6.3.1: Frequency and Length ___________________________________________ 71 6.3.2: Level of Environmental Concern __________________________________ 72 6.3.3: Issue and Domain _______________________________________________ 72 6.3.4: Characters _____________________________________________________ 75 7: NARRATIVE ANALYSIS ________________________________________ 77 7.1: Traditional Knowledge on Television __________________________________ 77 7.1.1: Māori TV ______________________________________________________ 77 7.1.2: Commercial Channels ___________________________________________ 79 7.2: The Environment and Consumerism __________________________________ 80 7.3: Children and the Environment _______________________________________ 82 7.4: The Environment in News and Current Affairs __________________________ 84 7.4.1: Informal References on Breakfast TV ______________________________ 84 7.4.2: Incidental Mentions in News Reports ______________________________ 87 3 7.4.3: ‘Principled Nutters’: Representation of the Green Party ______________ 87 7.4.4: Political Debates ________________________________________________ 90 7.4.5: Visual Imagery in Environmental News ____________________________ 91 8: DISCUSSION _________________________________________________ 94 8.1: Prevalence of Environmental Content _________________________________ 94 8.2: Alternative Environmental Paradigms _________________________________ 96 8.2.1: The Environment on Māori TV ___________________________________ 97 8.3: Dominant Portrayals of the Environment ______________________________ 98 8.3.1: The Environment as a Social Issue _________________________________ 99 8.3.2: The Environment as a Lifestyle Concern __________________________ 101 8.4: Meanings of the Environment on Television ___________________________ 103 9: CONCLUSION _______________________________________________ 105 REFERENCES _________________________________________________ 108 APPENDIX I: LIST OF PROGRAMMES IN THE SAMPLE _______________ 117 APPENDIX II: CODING SCHEDULE FOR PROGRAMMES ______________ 121 APPENDIX III: CODING SCHEDULE FOR NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS STORIES _____________________________________________________ 123 APPENDIX IV: CODING SCHEDULE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EPISODES _ 125 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I must thank my supervisor, Dr. Linda Jean Kenix, for all her valuable support and advice during the writing of this thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Donald Matheson, Dr. Mohammed Musa, Dr. Babak Bahador and Associate Professor Jim Tully from the University of Canterbury, and Professor Ian Spellerberg from Lincoln University for their support at various stages of this process. Thanks also to Komathi Kolandai for lending me the books. Finally, a big thank you to my family for all their help, and for putting up with me during this time. 5 ABSTRACT This study is an analysis of environmental content on New Zealand-produced television. As a society, we are facing unprecedented environmental challenges. Television is an important source of environmental knowledge (Shanahan, 1993). It is important, then, to investigate what television is saying about the environment to gain an understanding of how this might shape public attitudes and action. A content analysis was undertaken of 140 hours of television programming, across all genres, from four channels. A coding schedule was developed to identify environmental content on television. This gave information on the prevalence and common topics of environmental content, its relationship to other themes on television, and who is responsible for speaking about the environment. This was followed by a qualitative analysis of environmental content and its place within the narrative context of programmes. The study found that television‟s attention to the environment is relatively infrequent, with a diverse range of issues and perspectives. Most television narratives focused on a human-centred world, with the environment portrayed as something that was not of direct relevance to daily life. While these portrayals were almost always positive towards the environment, they were frequently linked to consumerist values and were generally supportive of the social and political status quo. An exception to this was the channel Māori TV, where environmental issues were linked to traditional cultural knowledge and the natural world was of more relevance to everyday life. Overall, the prevailing commercial paradigm of television works against the dissemination of important environmental knowledge. 6 1: INTRODUCTION Environmental issues will play a vitally important role in human society over the coming century. The Earth‟s climate is changing rapidly, in large part because of carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (IPCC, 2007). The potential consequences of climate change run far beyond the natural environment, extending into almost every aspect of human society.