Newsworthiness of selected environmental related articles and their implications for the public understanding of environmental issues

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Research Paper 01/01/2019
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Newsworthiness of selected environmental related articles and their implications for the public understanding of environmental issues

Janilete R. Cortez
J. Bio. Env. Sci.14( 1), 213-220, January 2019.
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Abstract

This study aims to characterize the common stylistic patterns of selected environmental-related articles in the Philippine setting by analyzing the conventional devices used to enhance their newsworthiness to the Filipino audience. It employed a mixed method research, for the quantitative aspect, descriptive presentation of the topics using frequency and percentage was used. For the qualitative aspect, it used the analytical perspective adaptation of Bednarek and Caple’s (2014) newsworthiness framework. Results of the study revealed that the thematic categories of the papers shows that most of the topics surfaced issues on climate change and biodiversity. Further, the analysis reveals that patterns of lexical and grammatical features of the articles adhere on the newsworthiness of rationalization and mitigation of speculation, followed by timeliness and impact, presentation of negativity and positivity, and novelty. Sense of infotainment is dominant among the selected environmental-related articles but there is limited conversationalized interaction pattern observed. As an implication of the study, Philippine environnmental-related articles may adhere to infotainment as well as put emphasis on the conversational style to engage Filipino readers and ultimately increase public understanding of environmental science.

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