myth, history and environmental journalism
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Slides for a lecture at the University of Ljubljana, May 12, 2014.TRANSCRIPT
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Exploring the lost history of the environment
Prof. Bill Kovarik
Myth / history * recent myths * journalism myths Enviroment & history * Franklin 1739 * Snow 1854 * Lippmann 1924 Trends * recent issues * brief theoretical note
Your ideas and questions
Sleep of history produces myths
Mass media and Environmental Conflict
Environmental conflict not new
Environmental news coverage is as old as the news
Can’t say science and technology were unquestioned until the late 20th century
Co-author of 1996 book
Author of 2011 book Revolutions in Communication,
examines the history of communication within the larger framework of technological change.
Major theme: Circumventing media technologies are deployed when needed
Social construction of technology is more important in communication than determinism (McLuhan). So …
The medium is not always the message People often create their media to carry the
messages they prefer
A modern myth
Medved said:
"The (whale oil) story should reassure present-day pessimists of the near miraculous power of technological advancement and pursuit of profit to save the environment."
History lesson: The oil industry came from the free market and it was good. We didn’t need government regulation then, and we don’t need it now.
Whale oil myth
Before oil (1854)
These are the fuels that were forced off the market by taxes in 1862.
History lesson: The oil industry did not come from the free market.
Environmental concerns are new
Environmentalism = substitute for religion *
Green power = black death (DDT) *
Climate science is new, untested, untried, and we can’t make policy based on it.
Environmental journalism is new
* for another lecture
More Modern Myths
Myths
Calder – “The thing that has amazed me as a lifelong journalist is how the most elementary principles of journalism seem to have been abandoned on this subject.”
Narrator - In fact the theory of manmade global warming has spawned an entirely new branch of journalism.
Calder – “You’ve got a whole new generation of reporters – environmental journalists.
“If you’re an environmental journalist, and if the global warming story goes in the trash can, so does your job. It really IS that crude.”
Is environmental science and controversy new?
Is environmental journalism “new” ?
How does the history of environmental journalism help us understand environmental controversies in the past?
“Forgotten History of Climate Science” Adam Frank, NPR – May 13, 2014
Climate science and climate change are older than the atom bomb, older than the discovery of penicillin and the older than recognition of DNA. It's older than trans-Atlantic jet flights, digital computers and moon rockets. Climate science and its conclusions are now venerable, established science.
To claim anything else is to rewrite history.
Partisan press & the environment
Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Bradford, 1739, Philadelphia Sanitation and public health
John Snow, Edwin Chadwick, 1854, London Sanitation and cholera
Walter Lippmann, Carr Van Anda, 1924, New York City Leaded gasoline
-- Benjamin Franklin, editor of the Gazette, and neighbors, petition Pennsylvania Assembly to halt waste dumping in Dock Creek and move tanneries away from Philadelphia's commercial district.
-- William Bradford, editor of the Mercury, writes of this as “A Daring Attempt (attack) on the Liberties of the Tradesmen of Philadelphia."
Example 1 Philadelphia 1739
+ Benjamin Franklin
1739 -- Benjamin Franklin and neighbors petition Pennsylvania Assembly to stop waste dumping and remove tanneries from Philadelphia's commercial district. Foul smell, lower property values, disease and interference with fire fighting are cited. The industries complain that their rights are being violated, but Franklin argues for "public rights." Franklin and the environmentalists win a symbolic battle but the dumping goes on.
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Tanners object and parade through city when they win. Andrew Bradford, editor of the Mercury, responds: “They must be fine nos’d (nosed) that can distinguish the smell of
Tannyards from that of the Common sink of near half Philadelphia…”
Franklin argues for “public rights.” It wasn't a question of the liberties of the tradesmen but rather "only a modest Attempt to deliver a great Number of Tradesmen from being poisoned by a few, and restore to them the Liberty of Breathing freely in their own Houses."
Example 2 : Sanitation, London
Reformers had to fight the London Times and other very conservative media
Times preferred cholera to government regulation
John Snow 1854
+ Aug 1, 1854 London Times
Michael Faraday handing his
“card” to Father Thames 1858
(Secchi card / disk)
Example 3 : Leaded gasoline
Even in the 1920s, at the height of the Progressive Era, the partisan press reflected broad disagreement on environmental issues.
Some sided with industry, others with workers and public health science
“Suppose it’s Halley’s Comet.Well first you have a half-page of
decoration showing the comet, with historical pictures of previous
appearances. If you can work a pretty girl into the decoration, so much the
better. If not, get some good nightmare idea like the inhabitants of mars watching it pass. Then… a two
column boxed ‘freak’ containing a scientific opinion which nodoby will understand, just to give it class…”
-- Unnamed NY World editor, around 1912 (Emery,
1972).
Science writing was yellow journalism
Carr Van Anda
New York Times editor 1906 – 1932
Positivistic, pro-industry approach to science coverage
Excellent science editor • New focus on science in Times
• Corrected one of Einstein’s equations (poor transcription)
• Translated Egyptian hieroglyphics
+Walter Lippmann - NY World (Pulitzer) Championed the cause of
the “radium girls” in 1928
Scientific controversy exemplified the difficulties of the informed democratic people ;
Science also represented a powerful institution that could stem the tide of totalitarianism
Ethyl leaded gas conflict 1924-26
Media reported “mystery gas” killing workers at Standard Oil refinery in Oct. 1924
Standard claimed there were no alternatives
NY World reported that alternatives existed, quoted scientists more than industry
Ethyl conflict source reliance
Ethyl conflict source reliance
Pulitzer’s World
Environmental issues are clearly
part of the news agenda in 1928
Note the tie between history and the future
Example 4 (Consensus / air pollution )
By the mid to late-20th century environmental protection was not partisan. Notice the Los Angels “Smog War Demanded” headline coming up.
“We celebrated great victories in the 1970s and '80s... And here we are 30, 35 years later and we're fighting the same battles.” -- David Suzuki, May 13, 2014
Air pollution 1939 St. Louis
St Louis Post Dispatch crusades against “smoke nuisance,” wins 1941 Pulitzer
Air Pollution, Donora Pennsylvania Twenty died, 600
hospitalized
Oct. 30, Donora, Pennsylvania
+London
Dec. 4-8 1952
Four thousand people die in the
worst of the London "killer fogs." Vehicles
use lamps in broad daylight, but smog is so thick that busses
run only with a guide walking ahead. By
Dec. 8 all transportation except
the subway had come to a halt.
1953 -- New York smog incident kills between 170 and 260 in November.
Los Angeles 1954
Heavy smog conditions shut down industry and schools in Los Angeles for most of October.
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Why wait till 1955? We may not even be alive
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St Louis 1958
Life Magazine info-graphic on Air pollution, 1963
Robert F. Kennedy 67-68 campaign
Recent trends in EH and EJ
US public opinion isolated
Public opinion divorced from science
Environmental news declining
Trends
Partisanship in US public
US public opinion vs science
Is human activity contributing to climate change? From: Scientific Consensus on Climate Change (Oreskes 2004).
Trends: Environmental Pulitzers
19901991
19921993
19941995
19961997
19981999
20002001
20022003
20042005
20062007
20082009
20102011
20122013
2014
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Q: Should we quote both sides in climate controversy?
Pro: Debate is healthy. If evidence is unbalanced, that will become obvious over time in the marketplace of ideas.
Con: In a story about evolution, should journalists quote a creationist? In a story about the Earth, is it our journalistic duty to quote a flat-earth-society idiot? That’s “false balance.”
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Ken Saro Wiwa
1995 -- Nov. 10. Nigerian government executes journalist and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other environmentalists.
They had been active in fighting pollution from Shell Oil Co. in the Ogani homeland. International protests of Shell activities continues.
Continued fighting by the “kill-and-go” armies and Shell’s guards leaves Ogoni region in ruins
W. Eugene Smith, photographer, killed by chemical company thugs some years after taking this photo in 1971
Framing and risk communication
Old health information diffusion models don’t explain complexities
Issue Framing
Situational Theory of communication
Risk Communication
Older health / science information diffusion model
Scientist --> message -- > receiver (public) =
more knowledge, new attitude, behavior change
But one dimensional S-M-R models don’t work.
Cultural context / info conflicts
EG - HIV - needle campaign NYC 1980s (legal issues)
EG - Anti-smoking (amid advertising promoting it)
EG - Micronutrients in rural India and Tanzania (other conflicting information)
Issue Framing
Historical method describing the main themes over time
Standard frame for environment in mainstream media:
Environmentalists -- > Government < -- Industry
In this old frame, industry and government took samples, not public scientists or environmentalists
Typically, controversy would emerge over the release and accuracy of the industry’s samples, not competing (and better) sample procedures.
Framing example - Greenpeace
HEROIC 19TH C. WHALERS
Replaced by
HEROIC 20TH C. DEFENDERS
A mind bomb was “… an action that would create a dramatic new impression to replace an old cliché. The most obvious example of a “mind bomb” was to overturn the image of heroic whalers to that of heroic ecologists risking their lives to save the gentle giants of the sea. This approach caught the world’s attention and dramatically changed the political terrain for commercial fishing and whaling operations after Greenpeace’s first whaling protests in June of 1975.
Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Communication 2006
1988 2006 2008
Exposition Consequences Solutions
Framing example
Situational theory of publics
-- Why do people communicate about science issues?
Information Seeking and Information Processing Is influenced by:
Problem recognition Constraint Recognition Level of Involvement
This theory explains why people communicate about specific issues and helps predict when targeted communications are most likely to be effective.
Simple repetition of positive messages is not likely to change opinions or behaviors. Decreasing constraints and increasing the level of involvement are better strategies.
Slovik risk chart
Outrage + hazard = RiskPeter Sandman asks: Are people upset because they think something is dangerous?
Or (more commonly) do people think something is dangerous because they are upset?
Conclusions Environmental journalism is not new; the issues and conflicts have been interesting to writers and observers for as long as there has been a mass media.
Forms, names, shapes and approaches may change, but the basic issues are the same
Recent trends: The urgency and significance of issues Financial instability of modern media Fossil fuel disinformation campaigns misinforming the American public
+Allan Nevins (1890 – 1971)
Allan Nevins American journalist, worked with Walter Lippmann at Pulitzer’s World newspaper
“History is never above the melee. It is not allowed to be neutral, but forced to enlist in every army…”