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Soft journalism, politics and environmental risk: An Australian story

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 08:45 authored by Elizabeth Lester, Hutchins, B
Complex environmental science issues are regularly reported by the news media in highly personalized and symbolic terms in order to make the consequences of environmental degradation and risk comprehensible to the public. This article presents a case study showing how the tension between political statements, human-interest narratives and scientific credibility in this style of reporting can undercut citizen-led claims about environmental risk factors. This tension creates discursive openings that government and industry use to deny the existence of these factors or contest their consequences. The evidence presented in support of this argument relates to episodes of Australian Story, a popular �soft journalism� programme, shown on the national public service broadcaster during the 2010 Tasmanian state election campaign. The timing and content of this programme produced extensive debate across multiple mediums about environmental risks, providing insight into the relationship between politics, journalism and the contested status of environmental science knowledge claims in the news

History

Publication title

Journalism

Volume

13

Issue

5

Pagination

654-6657

ISSN

1741-3001

Department/School

School of Humanities

Publisher

Sage Publications Ltd.

Place of publication

United Kingdom

Rights statement

Copyright 2011 SAGE

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

The media

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    University Of Tasmania

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