Media reporting on air pollution: Health risk and precautionary measures in national and regional newspapers

Steven Ramondt; A. Susana Ramírez

doi:10.3390/ijerph17186516

Media reporting on air pollution: Health risk and precautionary measures in national and regional newspapers

Steven Ramondt^*, A. Susana Ramírez

^*Corresponding author for this work

Communication Science

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Exposure to air pollution is one of the primary global health risk factors, yet individuals lack the knowledge to engage in individual risk mitigation and the skills to mobilize for the change necessary to reduce such risks. News media is an important tool for influencing individual actions and support for public policies to reduce environmental threats; thus, a lack of news coverage of such issues may exacerbate knowledge deficits. This study examines the reporting of health risks and precautionary measures regarding air pollution in national and regional print news. We conducted a content analysis of two national and two local newspapers covering the USA’s most polluted region during a 5-year period. Coders identified information on threat, self-efficacy, protective measures and information sources. Nearly 40% of air pollution news articles mentioned human health risks. Fewer than 10% of news stories about air pollution provided information on the precautionary measures necessary for individuals to take action to mitigate their risk. Local newspapers did not report more threat (Χ² = 1.931, p = 0.165) and efficacy (Χ² = 1.118, p = 0.209) information. Although air pollution levels are high and continue to rise at alarming rates, our findings suggest that news media reporting is not conducive to raising environmental health literacy.

Original language	English
Article number	6516
Pages (from-to)	1-10
Number of pages	10
Journal	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume	17
Issue number	18
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186516
Publication status	Published - 2 Sept 2020

Funding

A.S.R. was supported by the National Institutes of Health through grants P30DK092924 and K01CA190659 Acknowledgments: We thank J. Wallander and A.V. Song for their expert advice. We thank Nadia Alazzeh, Jacqueline Diaz, Kimberly Huynh, Natalie Pena Marquez and Yesenia Villa for their coding efforts.

Funders	Funder number
National Institutes of Health	P30DK092924
National Cancer Institute	K01CA190659

Keywords

Advocacy
Air pollution
Efficacy
Environment health
Environmental health literacy
Health communication
Health promotion
Newspapers
Public health
Risk communication

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.3390/ijerph17186516

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abstract = "Exposure to air pollution is one of the primary global health risk factors, yet individuals lack the knowledge to engage in individual risk mitigation and the skills to mobilize for the change necessary to reduce such risks. News media is an important tool for influencing individual actions and support for public policies to reduce environmental threats; thus, a lack of news coverage of such issues may exacerbate knowledge deficits. This study examines the reporting of health risks and precautionary measures regarding air pollution in national and regional print news. We conducted a content analysis of two national and two local newspapers covering the USA{\textquoteright}s most polluted region during a 5-year period. Coders identified information on threat, self-efficacy, protective measures and information sources. Nearly 40% of air pollution news articles mentioned human health risks. Fewer than 10% of news stories about air pollution provided information on the precautionary measures necessary for individuals to take action to mitigate their risk. Local newspapers did not report more threat (Χ2 = 1.931, p = 0.165) and efficacy (Χ2 = 1.118, p = 0.209) information. Although air pollution levels are high and continue to rise at alarming rates, our findings suggest that news media reporting is not conducive to raising environmental health literacy.",

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Media reporting on air pollution: Health risk and precautionary measures in national and regional newspapers

Abstract

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Keywords

UN SDGs

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