+ Environmental issues and journalism have a long history dating back to the 1700s. Benjamin Franklin wrote about waste dumping and pollution in Philadelphia in 1739. In the 1850s, John Snow reported on cholera in London. In the 1920s, Walter Lippmann covered the debate around leaded gasoline. Throughout history, partisan media have reflected disagreements on environmental issues, with some siding with industry and others advocating for public health. Recent trends show declining environmental news coverage amid increased threats to journalists investigating environmental conflicts.

1. +
Exploring the lost history
of the environment
Prof. Bill Kovarik

2. Myth / history
* recent myths
* journalism myths
Enviroment & history
* Franklin 1739
* Snow 1854
* Lippmann 1924
Trends
* recent issues
* brief theoretical note
Your ideas and questions

3. Sleep of history produces myths

4.  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

5. Environmentalhistory.org

6. 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

7. A modern myth

8. 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.

9. Whale oil myth

10. 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.

11.  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

12. 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.”

13. 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?

14. “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.

15. 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

16. -- 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

17. + 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.

18. +
 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."

19. Example 2 : Sanitation, London
 Reformers had to fight the
London Times and other very
conservative media
 Times preferred cholera to
government regulation

20. John Snow 1854

22. + Aug 1, 1854 London
Times

23. Michael
Faraday
handing his
“card” to Father
Thames 1858
(Secchi card / disk)

24. 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

25. “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

26. 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

29. +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

30. 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

31. Ethyl conflict source reliance

32. Ethyl conflict source reliance

33. Pulitzer’s
World
Environmental
issues are clearly
part of the news
agenda in 1928
Note the tie
between history
and the future

34. 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

35. Air pollution 1939 St. Louis
 St Louis Post Dispatch crusades against “smoke nuisance,” wins 1941 Pulitzer

36. Air Pollution, Donora Pennsylvania
Twenty died, 600
hospitalized
 Oct. 30, Donora,
Pennsylvania

37. +
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.

38.  1953 -- New York smog incident kills between 170 and 260
in November.

39. Los Angeles 1954
Heavy smog
conditions shut
down industry
and schools in
Los Angeles for
most of October.

40. +

41. Why wait till 1955?
We may not even be alive

42. +
St Louis 1958

43. Life Magazine info-graphic on
Air pollution, 1963

44. Robert F. Kennedy 67-68 campaign

45. Recent trends in EH and EJ
 US public opinion isolated
 Public opinion divorced from science
 Environmental news declining

47. Trends

48. Partisanship in US public

49. US public opinion vs science
Is human activity contributing to climate change?
From: Scientific Consensus on Climate Change (Oreskes 2004).

51. Trends:
Environmental news declining

52. Trends:
Environmental Pulitzers
0
5
10
15
20
25
30

53. 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.”

54. +

55. +
Last Week Tonight, John Oliver, May 11, 2014

56. And one very sobering trend ….

57. Trends:
Global Witness Report, March 2014

58. 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

59. W. Eugene Smith, photographer, killed by chemical
company thugs some years after taking this photo in 1971

60. Framing and risk communication
 Old health information diffusion models don’t explain
complexities
 Issue Framing
 Situational Theory of communication
 Risk Communication

61. 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)

62. 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.

63. 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

64. 1988 2006 2008
Exposition Consequences Solutions
Framing example

65. 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.

66. Slovik risk chart

67. Outrage + hazard = Risk
Peter Sandman asks: Are people upset because they think
something is dangerous?
Or (more commonly) do people think something is dangerous
because they are upset?

68. 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

69. +
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…”