(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
POWERFUL FORCE OF THE MEDIA TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND ITS
CONTRIBUTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERS
Abstract
Esra YEL 1 and Meral SERARSLAN 2
1 Selcuk University, Faculty of Engineering-Architecture, Konya/Turkey
2 Selcuk University, Communication Faculty, Konya/Turkey
Environmental Engineers are generally unable to proclaim their projects or their engineering
solutions against any problem to large masses. Environmental Engineering includes two
fundamental approaches: preventing the pollution, and solving the pollution problem after it is
arised. Although the first one is preferred by the engineers, in many developing and less
developed countries the general tendency is as the solution of pollution after generation.
Neither politicians nor public are willing to pay before seeing the threat of the problem, and
tend to pollution prevention, although they should be. This conflict decelerates the
engineering works to keep the environment and increase the non-success stories and
problemmatic situatons. Although the issues of environmental problems have been expanding
in an ever more complex way, growing concern in pollution problems gave rise to intensive
coverage of the media as one of their main public responsibilities. Because the influence of
the media has been regarded as a powerful force in society for many years, the coverage of
environmental problems increase the awareness and reduce the resistance against the
engineering works. Under these circumstances this study focuses on the effect of media on
public awareness and their participation in the solution of environmental problems. When the
journalists are aware of their role in environmental issues, the program will be of high quality
and accomplishes the objective, therefore supporting the Environmental Engineers in creating
solutions. As a sample, a national Turkish commercial broadcasting company programs were
investigated via contents analysis and discussed.
Keywords: Environmental issues, engineering, media, TV
1. Introduction
The term ‘media’ refer to a range of diverse mediums from commercial television to public
broadcasting, from radio to the Internet. Media is effective in informing and persuading
people to think or do something (Rowland, 1979). Within one medium, for example TV, there
are many ways in which the environment can be presented beyond the newsroom: from the
ruralities to the gardens, i.e. from factual to the fictitious, and vicious, nature. The power of
the media to create, construct or change social attitudes and behaviours is well-known by not
only the media itself but also the public and different workgroups like doctors, engineers as
well as commercials. Through media, large masses can be reached at home, where it serves as
catalyst for change in the whole environment (Heinich et al, 1982). The study of media and
the environment is long standing within the field of mass communication from a wide range
of perspectives. Empirical studies typically focus on the effect of media on public awareness,
attitudes and behavior against any type of environmental issues (Ji et al, 2009; Sampei and
Aoyagi-Usui, 2009; Holbert et al., 2003; Davies, 2001; Sudarmadi et al, 2001; Thapa, 1999;
Burges et al, 1998; Gorney, 1992; Greenberg et al, 1989; Rowland, 1979). But none of the
studies focused on the effect of media on success and acceptance of engineering works in
environmental issues. Moreover, studies have not investigated the public awareness and their
participation in terms of their contribution to the engineering studies for the solution of
472