The Media's relationship on the environment

Through my other side of my University degree I have studied the media, its affects on the audience and the different processes that all revolve around perception and transmission. I recently read another’s blog post about the media and the representation to the environment and thought I would try to enlighten this a little and throw in my own opinions on the subject. 

There is a theory we had to learn many years ago in A level I believe is defined as a moral panic which was first established by Stanley Cohen in 1972. Basically this in its most simple form is where a controversy, disaster or threat has been established in the media and then blown out of proportion by either misstated facts, or the way the facts are transmitted to the public which then causes mass hysteria, or an overblown response. With these subjects, sometimes simply reporting the facts can be enough to generate concern, anxiety or panic. In Stanley Cohen’s book the most quoted and relevant phrase is that a moral panic is defined as a “condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests.” Looking at this it is easy to see how this can relate to specific organisations and environmental issues that have arisen over the previous years. The Daily Mail is a key organisation to reflect on here, they often over exaggerate situations and push things out of proportion, with the environment, nearly every week there is an article in the paper saying that there is no turning back and that the ice caps will melt, and that will be the end. Although I am exaggerating here, my point has come across; we need to look at articles with a pinch of salt as the expression goes, and to not follow the hysteria associated with articles on the environment. You can never trust one source; even hard facts can be skewed to show issues in a worse light, and never trust the Daily Mail.

You can look up the theory: Moral Panic, online or in Stanley Cohens book Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972)