Audience Scope

This section is for individuals and organizations that support, deliver, or provide environmental and sustainability education to providers of mass communication, including print, radio, television, and the Internet.

Outcomes

The media will:

1. Acquire a heightened awareness and understanding of environmental and sustainability issues, ecological concepts, and their relationship to society, the economy, and technology Sample Indicators:

• Members of the media acquire and integrate a broad general knowledge of current environmental issues and related ecological concepts into their reporting, not only on environmental topics and events, but also across a wide spectrum of subjects connected to environmental concerns.
• The media expect staff to include environmental reports as opportunities arise.

2. Raise awareness and understanding of environmental issues

Sample Indicators:

• Radio and television stations, newspapers, and the Internet will feature balanced, accurate environmental news stories on a regular basis.
• Publishers and broadcasters offer more daily environmental sections, segments, or columns.
• Reporters for radio and television, newspapers, and the Internet are expected to cover environmental topics and stories with reasonable regularity.

3. Promote awareness of environmental efforts and initiatives

Sample Indicators:

• They provide media coverage of current environmental events, efforts, controversies, and success stories.
• Environmental breakthroughs are given as much coverage as other technological innovations.
• Media members include environmentalists and environmental education practitioners in their contact lists, and inform the public of the progress of environmental learning initiatives as important news.

4. Provide opportunities for public participation and partnerships in addressing local environmental decisions, activities, and practices

Sample Indicator:

• They partner with public agencies to coordinate and present public meetings, information sessions, and debates on current environmental issues.

Needs

Members of the media need:

• An understanding of the importance of good, frequent environmental coverage to long-term societal health
• Ecological literacy as essential learning in schools of journalism
• Freedom from content restrictions by owners and advertisers
• Access to comprehensive, balanced, and accurate information
• Time to do in-depth research
• The capacity to consider and integrate an environmental perspective into reports and stories
• Relationships with credible and trustworthy sources of environmental information

Strategies

Programs, Projects, and Policies

1. Develop programs and courses for schools of journalism that cover the principles of ecology, the connections between environment and society, and the importance of covering environmental issues.
2. Establish chairs of environmental journalism at leading universities.
3. Offer workshops to members of the media on contemporary environmental issues and reporting, and environmental learning; educate staff on the importance of their coverage and understanding to societal health.
4. Conduct regional workshops for environmental and sustainability education providers and for environmental groups on working with the media.
5. Develop partnerships with public relations and communications firms to improve environmental education outreach to the media.
6. Provide the media with clear, concise information on environmental activities, events, issues, innovations, and community resources in a style that is relevant to a wide audience.
7. Emphasize and promote the connection between environmental issues and knowledge, and overall societal health.
8. Campaign to add ENVIRONMENT to Google and other web browser topic directories.

Support

1. Communicate public interest in and concern for environmental issues to the media.
2. Consolidate a public call for more coverage of environmental topics, including events, workshops, activities, problems, and broadcasts
3. Ask for more media space dedicated to environmental reporting, including causes and effects, analysis, solutions, synthesis, success stories, and public education.
4. Provide support for leading environmentalists to meet with the senior staff and editorial boards of leading media outlets.
5. Provide funding to environmental groups to work with media relations organizations.
6. Develop programs that recognize and reward exceptional media coverage of environmental issues and events.

Please see Appendix 1 for a list of useful websites.