Research Article Open Access

Newspaper Coverage of Environmental Issues in the Western Ghat

Abstract

The Western Ghats are extraordinary rich source of plant and animal species. They have a huge diversity of natural, semi-natural and agro ecosystems with less than 6 percent of the land area of India and contain more than 30 percent of all plant, fish, fauna, bird, and mammal species found in India. At present, environmental issues pertaining to degradation aspect of Western Ghats are being debated in the country. Media play a pivotal role in shaping perception and awareness of environmental issues of Western Ghats. The study was based on the content analysis of news related to Western Ghats. The study examines the importance given to the major environmental issues of the Western Ghats in media. The study shows that environmental stories in newspapers constituted only a small percent (0.27) of all news reported. Among them 37.22 percent of the environmental stories were about issues in the Western Ghats. It should be noted that the issues in the Western Ghats received fairly good coverage in the selected dailies. The result illustrates that more environmental news of Western Ghats was published in Kannada newspapers compared to English newspapers.

Dr. Varna M *, D.S Poornananda

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