Examining the framing patterns of environmental issues: Episodic and thematic analysis of Pakistani and British news stories

Practice and applicability of environmental journalism accelerate changes in environmental policy, foster environmental awareness amongst the public and encourage environmentalism in the society. Reporting news in episodic instead of thematic manner is imperative in altering the public narrative regarding environment as well as providing assistance for significant decision making, to concerned stakeholders for better policy formation. The comparative design of this study utilized quantitative content analysis to examines framing approach of Pakistani and British environmental news stories. Using simple random sampling technique total (n=1139) environmental news stories analysed from all four newspapers since 2007 to 2016-time period. The findings indicate the contrast among four newspapers of two countries (Dawn & Nation) from Pakistani print media however (Guardian & Telegraph) from Great Britain identify the divergent framing characteristics of Pakistani and British environmental news stories with thematic and episodic preferences. Guardian and Telegraph framed thematic news stories focusing on structural attributions while Dawn and Nation news stories evoke individualistic attributions with episodic frames. In spite of media’s regular journalistic practice of featuring episodic news stories still communicators can shift their professional approach by learning the construction of persuasive thematic environmental news stories for bigger social change.

Shareholders and the environment: a review of four decades of academic research

We provide a synthesis of four decades of empirical research regarding the reaction of shareholders to environmental events. This literature is at the crossroads of finance, environmental economics, management and corporate social responsibility (CSR). To set the stage, we first provide an account of the Brumadinho ecological disaster that occurred in Brazil on January 25th, 2019. Second, we provide a critical review of more than 100 event studies. These papers cover a diverse set of events, such as industrial accidents, public disclosure programs, legal actions following environmental violations, changes in environmental regulation, environmental news, and corporate initiatives. This review makes four contributions. First is the synthesis of a large strand of literature in a structured setting, so as to be readily handled by both experts and non-experts. Second is the observation that stock market penalties in the event of environmental concerns are likely to be quite low: on average there is a (temporary) drop in the excess stock market return to events that are harmful to the environment of about 2% and the median is −0.6%. Third is to highlight the limits of CSR as a business strategy towards a sustainable society. Fourth is to provide an open access bibliographic database.

A Post-Environmental Discourse: Rhetoric, Science and Legitimacy in Environmental News Coverage of Lake Winnipeg, Canada

<p>In post-environmental news discourse, environmentalism is reduced to a rhetorical motif that is relayed by all sides of the political debate, including the environmental opposition. The phase of post-environmentalism in environmental discourse is indicated by the absorption of environmental messages into mainstream discourse so that they are no longer 'owned' by subversive environmentalists, but by anyone claiming to represent the cause. The result is that a counter-discourse is no longer present in the discussion to challenge dominant assumptions about unlimited economic growth. Using critical discourse analysis, this thesis examines the news coverage of governmental regulations aimed at reducing toxic algae in Lake Winnipeg, Canada. The thesis describes how the science is used in the narratives, and compares patterns of doubting science in the coverage with similar patterns found in news discourse historically. The analysis shows that the pro-lake cause is recruited throughout the coverage to boost legitimacy for the Manitoba hog industry and the City of Winnipeg, who leveraged public campaigns opposing the regulations. Rather than contributing to a public understanding of the tension between environmental and economic paradigms, the simplistic cost-benefit analysis of the regulations in the coverage decontextualises the problem from its complex political-economic origins. Furthermore, rather than presenting environmental science in a way that aids public understanding, science is either credited or discredited to reinforce the industry and governmental positions. The need for transparent communication of environmental problems and their causes is thus hindered by the legitimacy claims-making that dominates the discourse. The repeated and shared voicing of environmental messages in the media further embeds the discourse into a post-environmental phase by excluding a counter-discourse from the discussion – environmentalism becomes talked about by everyone, and yet discussed by no one.</p>

A Post-Environmental Discourse: Rhetoric, Science and Legitimacy in Environmental News Coverage of Lake Winnipeg, Canada

<p>In post-environmental news discourse, environmentalism is reduced to a rhetorical motif that is relayed by all sides of the political debate, including the environmental opposition. The phase of post-environmentalism in environmental discourse is indicated by the absorption of environmental messages into mainstream discourse so that they are no longer 'owned' by subversive environmentalists, but by anyone claiming to represent the cause. The result is that a counter-discourse is no longer present in the discussion to challenge dominant assumptions about unlimited economic growth. Using critical discourse analysis, this thesis examines the news coverage of governmental regulations aimed at reducing toxic algae in Lake Winnipeg, Canada. The thesis describes how the science is used in the narratives, and compares patterns of doubting science in the coverage with similar patterns found in news discourse historically. The analysis shows that the pro-lake cause is recruited throughout the coverage to boost legitimacy for the Manitoba hog industry and the City of Winnipeg, who leveraged public campaigns opposing the regulations. Rather than contributing to a public understanding of the tension between environmental and economic paradigms, the simplistic cost-benefit analysis of the regulations in the coverage decontextualises the problem from its complex political-economic origins. Furthermore, rather than presenting environmental science in a way that aids public understanding, science is either credited or discredited to reinforce the industry and governmental positions. The need for transparent communication of environmental problems and their causes is thus hindered by the legitimacy claims-making that dominates the discourse. The repeated and shared voicing of environmental messages in the media further embeds the discourse into a post-environmental phase by excluding a counter-discourse from the discussion – environmentalism becomes talked about by everyone, and yet discussed by no one.</p>

Wildlife and Newspaper Reporting in Iran: A Data Analysis Approach

Human response to wildlife management is widespread, encompassing both human–wildlife conflicts and wildlife conservation, in different places and at different times. As people become increasingly aware of the importance of wildlife to biological and environmental sustainability, newspapers can be important sources of information, especially in developing countries, such as Iran. Three major Iranian daily newspapers were analysed for news items related to wildlife. Over the 7-year study period, 434 articles presented environmental news, of which 61 items referred to wildlife. Each wildlife item was recorded in terms of message, contributor, spatiality, and allocated space. Structure query language (SQL) was used to analyse relationships between the 915 fields/entries. Wildlife items were characterised by public awareness (51%), columnist contributions (46%), and local spatiality (43%). Most items (82%) were allocated space of less than half a page. Of the categorised topics, those of combined endangered land (30%) and marine (5%) species exceeded items on global conservation (24%). Results highlighted the minimal number and small space devoted to wildlife news items and their concentrations (67%) in one of the three sampled newspapers. Although nature has historically been important in Iranian culture, current attitudes to wildlife, as reflected in newspaper coverage, do not seem to mirror these traditional perspectives. Given the widespread distribution of newspapers and their roles (i.e., as sources of information and opinion influencers), global wildlife conservation issues would benefit from much greater coverage in the daily press.

Disclosures of ESG Misconducts and Market Valuations: Evidence from DAX Companies

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors have become an important topic on capital markets amid an increasing interest in responsible investing. Despite this fact, public companies have been involved in a number of ESG misconducts in recent years, which were often against the interests of their stakeholders. In our research, we refer to stakeholder theory in order to show how disclosures of social misconducts against the companies’ stakeholders have affected market valuation of listed companies, which we treat as one of the measures of shareholders’ wealth. We conduct an event study on 235 ESG misconducts related to DAX companies. The data sample of ESG news was hand collected in a thorough content analysis in the period of 2000-2019. The main findings reveal that investors’ reactions were more severe for ESG news released after 2009 than before this date as illustrated by negative and significant cumulative average abnormal returns (CAARs) in different event windows, while before 2009 CAARs were insignificant. We also found out that investors reacted stronger to governance- rather than social or environmental news. Our results provide a guidance for listed companies on how ESG mismanagements might affect their market value, and for investors who intend to incorporate ESG factors in their investment decision processes.

How Do Environmental News and the Under the Dome Documentary Influence Air-Pollution Knowledge and Risk Perception Among Beijing Residents?

To examine Beijing residents’ risk perception of contracting smog-related diseases, we proposed a model in which air-pollution knowledge is a theoretical mechanism accounting for the influence on risk perception of exposure to environmental news and exposure to Under the Dome, an environmental documentary about smog in China, which has been censored. Data ( N = 523) were collected from Beijing residents from February to March in 2017. We analyzed the data using Hayes’ PROCESS macro. Findings revealed that environmental-news exposure is positively associated with both air-pollution knowledge and risk perception. Exposure to environmental news has an indirect effect on risk perception through air-pollution knowledge. Exposure to Under the Dome is positively related to risk perception but is not related to air-pollution knowledge. We contributed to the literature by empirically testing the impact of Under the Dome, which has been largely studied via the critical theory approach. Implications included that Under the Dome is a successful risk communication model and that its impact goes beyond increasing public risk perception of smog.