Gilbert(1997)_News Sources and Framming in Environmental News (Response)

7/28/2019 Gilbert(1997)_News Sources and Framming in Environmental News (Response)

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A RESPONSE TO ''OLD-GRO WTH FORESTSON NETWORK NEWS: NEWS SOURCES AND THEFRAMING OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROVERSY'By Sarah Ann Gilbert

In "Old-Growth Forests on Network News: News Sources and theFram ing of an Env ironmental Con troversy," Carol Liebler and Jacob Bendix'make three major assertions about environmental reporting. They are: Environ men tal ne ws is often crisis- or event-oriented; Environm ental n ew s fails to report on the und erlyi ng issues that led to thecrisis; and N ew s coverage often lacks ade qu ate explan ations of scientific concepts andprocesses.

These three assertions characterize newspaper coverage on the spot-ted owl issue bu t fail to characte rize cov erage of the Pacific salm on - an issuethat received an equal amou nt of attention in the No rthwe st. A framinganalysis that me asured spotted owl coverage in two N orthwestern new spa-pers (the Oregonian and Seattle Post-1 nfelli^nicer) betw een 1990 and 1992 andthree news magazines (Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report)betw een 1990 and 1994 su pp ort ed Liebler and Bend ix's conclusion s, but aparallel analysis of salmo n coverage dur ing the same period did not. (Boththe spotted DW I and some Pacific salmon runs were listed as endangeredspecies during this period.)First, the salmo n issue cann ot be conside red a crisis in the context of

traditional n ew s values.- Pacific salmon have been in decline in the North-west since the turn of the centu ry. In 1894, the federal go ver nm en t issued aw arnin g that salmo n were disa pp earin g in the Northwest.^ D espite the lackof a "crisis," the Pacific salmon received a subs tantial a m ou nt of covera ge inth e Oregonian (1,522 headlines) and the Seatlk Post-Inldligencer (124 head-lines) betw een 1990 and 1992. Salmon also garnere d th e attention of Time,Neii'su'eek, and U.S. News and World Rq.wrl betw een 1992 and 1994.

Second, news on salmon did cover unde rlying issues that led to ESAlistings of a nu m ber of wild salmon run s. Many ne w spa per articles statedthat a history of overfishing and dam buildin g in the Colum bia River led tothe dem ise of salmo n pop ulatio ns. Tw o "special rep orts" that ran in theSeattle Post-lntelti^cncer- "Hatch ing Troub le" and "Rivers at Risk" - covered


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"River of Ghosts," m ore than 130 inches of text discussed t he origin s of th esalmon problem ." This section was called "Lessons of the past." N ew sm agazine coverage also discussed the historical im portance of the salmo n, aswell as river development that led to the ESA listings.Finally, news on Pacific salmon discussed scientific concepts andprocesses sur rou nd ing the salmon. Many articles contained explan ations ofsalmon migration, spawning, and the return of young salmon to the ocean.Some articles were comprised almost entirely of explanations of scientificconcepts as "utility and fishery agency biologists jostled to put their ownspins on research show ing how increased water flow h elp young fish migratedo w ns tre am " for ex am pl e/ Explana tions of science - o r m ore specificallysalmon ecology - were necessary to un ders tand why the lives of salmon werebeing comprom ised in the Columbia River basin. In addition , the thrust ofm ost of the articles about the salmon wa s a desire to save them ; they could notbe saved without understanding their biological needs.

The differences between the results of my study on the newspapercovera ge of the Pacific salm on a nd Liebler and Ben dix's results of televisioncoverage of the spotted ow l cannot be attributed to the differences betw eennewspaper and television coverage because television coverage parallelednew spa per coverage on the spotted ow l issue. Therefore, an alternativeexplanation for Liebler and Be ndix's findings is needed .1 attribute the differences in coverage to diverging social perceptionsabout these anim als. N ew s coverage reflects a generally negative a ttitud etowa rd the owl and a positive attitude tow ard the salmon.The salmon is part of the hum an social, cultural, and econom ic sph erein the N orth w est in a way that the spo tted ow l is not. The salmo n is anim portan t industrial and sport-fishing resource, as well as a stron g sym bol ofnat ure and fecundity. "Salmon are not just fish on the Colum bia; they aretokens of a way of life.""These attributes define the salm on's significance as greater than thatof othe r anim als. The salmo n is literally and m etaporically attached tohumans, and therefore enters, without being questioned, the ethnocentricinstitutio n of new s. Alth ough the ESA identifies all org anis m s as equ al invalue, the news does not. The spotted owl and the salmon w ere both listed

as enda nger ed species un de r the ESA identifying them as equally imp ortantin the eyes of the law, but newspapers acted to negate this equality bydegrading the ow] and minimizing its importance while emphasizing theimportance of the salmon by documenting its plights, blaming actors andcircumstances that hurt the salmon, and attempting to present solutions tothe problem,

NOTES1 . Carol Liebler and lacob Bendix, "Old-Growth Forests on Network


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hatcheries spawning danger for state's wild fish"; "Pressure grows forcorrection in hatchery co urse," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 27 , 28, 29 November1991, sec. A, p. 1 and p. 4.5. R. Taylor, "R ivers at Risk: Fish hab itat takes big hit from logg ing";"Fish follow in spotted owl's wake"; "Safeguard ideas abound, but effects

are unproven," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 1-3 Ju ly 1992, sec. A, p. 1.6. B. Meehan and J.L. Jewett, "River of gh ost s," The Sunday Oregonian, 29Octob er 1995, sec. S, p p . 1-8.7. L. Lange, "Biologists debate how salmon go with the flow," Seattle

Post-Intelligencer/' 25 April 1991, sec. B, p. 1.8. R.White,The Organic Machine (New york: Hill and W ang, 1995), 89-113.


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Gilbert(1997)_News Sources and Framming in Environmental News (Response)