index

BLOCK
02 THE ANALYSIS
The journalists´ experience
In Spain, the following equation is an axiom:
Protected area = Constraints to economic development.
Nearly 30 per cent of the Spanish territory belongs to the Network.
The contribution of Spain to it is greater than would be normal for its
surface extension, population numbers, GDP or per capita income... The
problem is that such thing is perceived as something negative.
Why in the Spanish public opinion the protection of a natural site is
seen mostly as something that will mean constraints, instead of being
taken as a guarantee of quality of the place where one lives? It happens
because we Spaniards cannot answer questions like the following:
Can you build on a site included in the Natura 2000 Network?
Can you hunt and fish?
Can you enlarge your house or exploit a farm?
Do I receive funding or pay extra tax if I am a property owner there?
Will they force me to stop irrigation farming or cattle growing?
The role of the media, of journalism professionals and experts linked to
the Natura 2000 Network is more to throw light on these kind of questions
than to insist on imprinting in people´s minds complex formulas and too
diverse concepts that don´t really have to be part of the discourse on this
European network of protected areas. However, one must not forget that
newspapers, radio and television (and their online versions) are there to
give us news.
Journalism has shown itself in its ideal form as publishing projects whose
objective is to educate, inform and entertain. Unfortunately, large media
are heading day by day for a model where education and knowledge
dissemination almost don´t count. Space or air time are extremely
expensive. These days, managing to publish an article titled What is the
Natura 2000 Network? (EL PAÍS, 22 April 2013) is almost miraculous.
Newspapers need headlines. Media must receive information in the
shape of news: if it is no news, there is no space on the paper or minutes
of air time on television or radio. Science popularization articles are
difficult to “sell” to chief editors, who are often not quite or familiar at all
with environmental or conservation concepts. But miracles occasionally
happen. It is the duty of a good journalist to benefit from current events
to give some context information, to give readers the necessary tools for
understanding the news without having to go into technical concepts that
may put the average audience off.
Media have an important role in the dissemination of new concepts that
must be vindicated and are worth fighting for. But the majority of us
journalists do not have the capacity to reach a massive audience. In
most cases not even our colleagues in television or radio (that have
much larger audiences than papers) have the privilege of access to
prime time - the daypart with the most viewers or listeners.
For this reason, popularization work on the Natura 2000 Network and
its implications must reach audiences in other ways. It must reach
schools, environmental education centres, hunters´ societies, small
town councils, interpretation centres, agricultural societies... It is true,
too, that a programme to that end, the Activate Natura 2000 Network,
already exists and will be in place until 2017. To succeed in making the
Natura 2000 Network being seen as something of our own and a positive
thing, it is essential to act locally.
“The task of publicizing the Natura 2000 Network must find
alternative channels to those of journalism. It is necessary
to reach schools, environmental education centres, hunters´
associations, small town councils, interpretation centres,
agricultural associations...”
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Natura 2000 Network. Handbook for journalists