Whether the issue is a continuing problem of significant importance to society, or a relatively new and unheard of phenomenon, public attention and activism tends to follow similar patterns of cycling attitudes and behaviors. As Anthony Downs explains in an article written more than 30 years ago, issues regarding the environment tend to “suddenly leap into prominence, remain there for a short time, and then gradually fade from the center of public attention.” He calls this process the “issue-attention cycle,” one of the most intriguing theories regarding environmental public opinion. Even though this article was written in the 1970’s, Downs’ theory contains crucial insight into what is currently happening with public opinion about the environment today. Ultimately, Anthony Downs’ theory on the issue-attention cycle has the potential to aid in our understanding of how American attitudes towards improving the quality of the environment are shaped, sustained, and lost.
In order to best attempt to analyze the public’s current opinions on the environment, it is critical to first understand how Downs defines the issue-attention cycle, specifically his description of the stages that are involved. Essentially, and rooted both in “the nature of certain domestic problems and in the way major communications media interact with the public,” there are five stages of the issue-attention cycle. The first stage, known as the pre-problem stage, takes place when a highly undesirable condition or situation occurs that has not yet caught the attention of the public, regardless of whether or not experts or interest groups were already aware of the problem. The next stage, known as the stage of alarmed discovery and euphoric enthusiasm, consists of t...
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... Clearly, climate change fits into this category very well. Having now entered the post-problem stage, public concern about climate change has once again entered a state of prolonged limbo, at least until the next environmental crisis or natural disaster demands our attention.
As we can see, the issue-attention cycle as presented by Anthony Downs contains many practical uses within the understanding of public opinion and environmentalism. Over long periods of time, public interest has the potential to pique and drop on multiple occasions, with the media playing an influential role in exactly where and when this occurs. Ultimately, even though the theory was initially presented back in the 1970’s, it still holds true today as a vital tool in our understanding of how American attitudes towards improving the quality of the environment are shaped, sustained, and lost.
The environment has always been controversial topic. Global warming, fossil fuels, and climate change usually are the main topics, when talking about the environment. Many people feel strongly about the issues pertaining to the environment, while others seem not to care. Though some of the populace seems to not care about the environment, many people do not fully understand what is going on. Most of the population is not fully educated on the issues of the environment. While some people are, they are not sure what to do with what they know. If more people had knowledge and knew how to help, would they?
Climate Change is costing the world millions of dollars and is the biggest issue facing society today. Climate change is causing greenhouse gases to build up, ice caps to melt, etc. Some people believe climate change is not a big issue. For instance in the article “Gospel of The Climate Change Deniers” it is stated, “Barton a guy who called Al Gore ‘totally wrong’ about global warming and advised people to get shade to adapt to rising temperatures” (Kroll). Although, this is an appealing mindset, it is illogical because climate change has many more effects than just warmer temperatures. For example, Frank Ackerman: an economist known for his work in environmental economics and Dr. Elizabeth A. Stanton an environmental economist and
Bill McKibben's "The Environmental Issue from Hell" argues that climate change is a real and dire concern for humanity. His essay deals with the methods and persuasive arguments needed to spur American citizens and the government on to change to more eco-friendly choices. The arguments he proposes are based largely upon emotional appeals calling for empathy and shame, and examples of what in our daily lives is adding to the changes we're seeing in the climate.
Ehrlich, P. R., & Ehrlich, A. H. (1996). Betrayal of science and reason: How anti-environmental rhetoric threatens our future. Washington, D.C: Island Press.
Today’s mainstream media has a deep influence on numerous aspects of economical and social life, it provides information and data almost on everything that happens on our planet. Mainstream media became one of the most important and influential instruments in our society, as the news stories reach a large numbers of people in a short time. Different people are using mainstream media as a first source of information; humans need the information, which is why there is a great deal of trust on media. We follow the news because it is our duty as citizens to be informed; it gives us the facts that help us make the right decisions and also gives us something to talk about. The media has a great public responsibility in front of their audience; therefore, they are expected to provide information that is accurate, reliable and free from bias. It is essential that the public is truly informed about the controversial topics on environmental issues, like DDT and GMOs. Media informs the public with regard to science and technology, which further impacts policy making within the society. The drawback with today’s mainstream media is that it tends to provide information that is far from what is happening in the real world. Current news media misrepresent some news report in order to gain attention and they omit the most important news from television, newspapers or radio that the public deserves to know. The articles “Environmentalism for the 21st Century” by Dr. Patrick Moore, “Rachel Carson’s Environmental Genocide” by Lisa Makson, “Lawrence Solomon: For global warming believers, 2013 was the year from Hell” by Lawrance Solomon and “Global warming at work: how climate change affects the economy and labour” by Raveena Aulakh will be discussed ...
In 1989, seventy five percent of Americans identified themselves as environmentalists, and the number has continued to grow since then (Walls 1). Environmentalism is now the most popular social movement in the United States, with over five million American families donating regularly to environmental organizations (Walls 1). Environmentalists today focus on what kind of world they hope to see in the future, and largely deal with limiting pollution and changing consumption rates (Kent 1 and 9). Modern environmentalists also have much different issues than those Carson’s America faced. With climate change becoming more threatening each year, protection of the natural world is needed more than ever. Pollution has caused the warmest decade in history, the deterioration of the ozone layer, and species extinction in extreme numbers (Hunter 2). It not only threatens nature, but also human populations, who already suffer from lack of clean water and poisoning from toxic chemicals (Hunter 16). Unlike environmental actions in the 1960’s, which were mostly focused on protection, a massive increase in pollution has caused efforts to be focused on environmental restoration (Hunter 16). Like in the time of Silent Spring, environmentalists are not only concerned with one country. Protecting the environment remains a global issue, and every nation is threatened by the
In conclusion, these two articles framed the Tennessee Coal Ash Spill in two distinct ways, one pro-environmentalism and other is drive for profit for corporation. Framing is a way for the news to speak in more than one voice (Schudson, 2003, pg 37). These articles show how you can see one event in contrasting perspective. These articles are voiced by different people Pictures also help in framing in news media. “Images representing a particular meaning” (Hansen, 2010, pg 3). The pictures helped understand what the article was trying to address. The picture itself can tell you where the articles stands. Framing is what the news media wants to shows us and this can be shown in any way the media wants to.
“Climate change is real. It is human-caused. We’re seeing the effects now.” (Romm, 2014). Climate change is an important issue the public is aware of, but do not see how their individual responses can have an impact on such a large global issue. Changing people’s temporal habits and attitudes about climate change will be a challenge. As the impacts of anthropogenic climate change are felt more often in our daily lives, people around the world will begin to adjust their temporal habits for greater sustainability of the natural environment we solely depend on for our survival.
The mass media plays an enormous role in influencing the public. In the age of globalization many technologies like Internet, television, newspapers, magazines, radio and so on, make news available and accessible for everyone around the world. The media can easily get any information out there to the public regarding any subject such as political views, health issues, entertainment, education, human tragedies…and those information do have an impact on our everyday life decisions, opinions and raise our awareness on a subject. The media is most of the time the only way people can get information on subject that they cannot fully understand such as science. Because “science is an encoded form of knowledge that requires translation in order to be understood” (Ungar 2000), many studies have shown that the media plays a very crucial role in raising people understanding of the scientific world and the environmental issues, especially the climate change and global warming. Climate change has become an important issue today and people need to understand how serious it is in order to take actions to prevent it from getting worse; and the only way the information can get to the public is via the mass media. Today global warming is raising many concerns and the media coverage is increasing but yet many scientists complain about the limited coverage of the subject because it seems that it is not enough compared to the gravity of the situation. Because of the lack of information, many people are still very skeptical and some are just very confused about the global warming and how it affect our atmosphere.
Such ploys seek to undermine any legitimate eco-consciousness in the audience, replacing it with rhetoric that is ultimately ambivalent toward the health of ecosystems, but definitively pro-business. These tactics assume a rigidly anthropocentric point of view, shutting out any consideration for the well-being of non-human existence; they seem to suggest that nature lies subordinate to our base desires. In addition to upholding the subordination of nature to business and leisure activities, this view establishes nature as something privately owned and partitioned (243), rather than something intrinsic to the world. Our relationship with nature becomes one of narcissism.
Schultz, P., 2002. New Environmental Theories: Empathizing With Nature: The Effects ofPerspective Taking on Concern for Environmental Issues. Journal of social issues, 56(3), pp.391--406.
Subpoint A: Not long ago, a documentary film called “An Inconvenient truth” came out in 2006. This film raised international public awareness of climate change and reenergizing the environmental movement. A former U.S Vice president Al Gore campaigned to educate citizens about global warming through a simp...
The Earth is currently locked in perpetuating spiral of climate change. While the global climate has unarguably been changing since the dawn of it's manifestation, the once steadied ebb and flow of climate change has become increasingly more unpredictable.The risk of rising sea levels, and drought plaguing the fresh water supply, during the time that flooding and sporadic storm conditions turn once fully inhabited regions into uninhabitable death traps. Climate change catalyzed by human's increased production of carbon dioxide, is more noticeable than ever in our recorded history (United States, 2014 National Climate Assessment). Thankfully however, with the changing weather conditions due to carbon related emissions, the change in public opinion about their personalized influence on climate change is also increasing. Kevin Liptak Jethro Mullen, and Tom Cohen note that In reaction to the most recent governmental report on climate change, even the U.S. government believes that a stronger approach needs to be taken to correct our self-generated cataclysm.
...ng the problem of global warming. Although, it will take several decades, possibly centuries to fix the damage that has already been done to both mankind and the world, the end is not yet near and global warming has not yet ended disastrous for the world. Although technology is considered to be contributing to global warming, inversely it can also be the exact thing that helps turn things around.
Focused on the global environmental issues, the global warming seems to be a serious case to deal with. If the global warming ...