Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
private corporations with shareholders and possessed of a wide portfolio of
business interests (spanning news, entertainment and leisure).
GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AS 'NEWS'
Let me turn now, at last, to newspapers and the reporting of anthropogenic
climate change in recent years - a subject of profound importance for all
news gets made.
Newspapers, journalists and news as a
communicative genre
As noted previously, the 'serious' parts of the mass media, of which 'quality'
(or broadsheet) newspapers are a prime example, have an essential connec-
tion to the existence and quality of public literacy and public debate about
all manner of issues, topics and questions. Their independence from non-
media organisations and sources is important. As political scientist Doris
Graber (2003: 143) has noted, in theory such independence permits them
to do three things, to which I'd add a fourth:
•
Provide a forum for presenting and evaluating diverse, often conflicting,
claims, beliefs, goals and values;
•
To give voice to, and make claims on, 'public opinion' and 'the public
interest';
•
To hold elected governments to account on behalf of the citizenry;
•
To hold important quasi- or non-governmental institutions and individ-
uals to account (such as senior scientists).
Rephrased, the serious parts of the mass media ideally serve to (1) be a
representational commons
that shares and disseminates a wide variety of cog-
nitive, moral and aesthetic messages, and (2) be a
watchdog
on behalf of the
various 'publics' they summon in their discourses.
Anyone who reads a newspaper, at least in the West, usually under-
stands the particularities of the communicative genre well enough. Each
day, what's considered to be new or novel is reported ('If it ain't new it
ain't news!'), with lead stories garnering more column inches than the many
smaller reports that follow them. These stories, many accompanied by rel-
evant photographic images, are complemented by invited columns, by the
paper's own editorial view on a selection of live issues and by such things as
readers' letters. In these other sections, there's space for debate and criticism
rather than just for reporting recent events and 'facts'. In these sections, a
newspaper's own political leanings become very evident to readers - indeed
part of their
appeal
to readers. Increasingly, newspapers have moved online,
with their websites both reproducing and extending what's contained in
