A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, Johannesburg, 2018 / Environmental communication in media has been studied largely in American and European
contexts, since the 1990s. These studies have revealed the trends in reporting on the
greatest environmental threats of our time, and the predominant framing of environmental
risks, most notably those posed by climate change. Despite the crucial role that media plays
in developing environmental narratives, few studies on environmental media reporting in
developing nations, especially African nations, have been conducted. This research thus
evaluates the media role in communicating environmental issues and environmental science
in the South African media context. By conducting coverage and content analysis on three
environmental issues at the core of the industrial development that underpins the South
African economy: acid- mine drainage, fracking and climate change and energy, in five
commercial newspapers, it is shown that South African media coverage of environmental
issues is still limited by demographic factors which influence the news agenda of
publications; that social framing of environmental news is important to environmental
journalists and raising the environmental agenda in the newsroom; and government voices
speak loudest on these important environmental issues / MT 2019
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/27069 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Suliman, Lutfiyah |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (117 leaves), application/pdf, application/pdf |
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