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 The role of an
environmental journalist should be accurate and fair reporting of issues
rather than spreading propaganda and supporting public relation agendas,
panelists said Sunday at a convention of environmental journalists.
"Journalists should be
stewards of the news," said Jim Detjen, a professor at Michigan State
University and an environmental journalist.
Detjen said environmental
journalists should present multiple views and inform and educate the
public on environmental issues when doing hard news reporting.
Environmental journalists
should help set community agendas because they have collective power with
legislatures when representing the public voice, he said.
He spoke while on the
panel "Advocates, Journalists or Both" session at the Biosphere 2 as part
of the seventh annual conference of the Society of Environmental
Journalists.
Coverage of environmental
issues should be fair and balanced and journalists should not have hidden
agendas, Detjen said.
He said the best type of
journalists see their role as "watchdogs" and do extensive probing into
issues and problems.
"Act independently,"
Detjen told journalists, "Don't parody campaigns of the industry."
Journalists should
examine their influences, Detjen said, and avoid being unconsciously
directed by public relation firms.
"To this day, most
journalists have little idea on how much they've been manipulated," he
said.
Detjen also said the
three factors that contribute to the ways in which an environmental
journalist writes are which section the article is being written for, the
type of media the reporting is in and what culture it is in.
If the story is on the
front page, Detjen said, the journalist should remain objective because
it is assumed to be a hard news piece. However, Detjen said, if it
appears in an editorial or column, the journalist should have his own
opinion, be investigative and have a strong point of view.
Mainstream news also
should be unbiased, but coverage in alternative newspapers and weeklies
is expected to be opinionated, he said.
Detjen said the American
approach to journalism borrows from English tradition and strives to be
impartial but informative. However, he said, in cultures such as Asia,
reporters are assumed to be clear advocates of one side or another and
write in the proper fashion.
Author and TV producer
David Helvarg said environmental issues have long been included in
everyday American values and concerns and to be an environmentalist no
longer means being an "activist."
Helvarg said journalists
should focus on reporting information fairly and accurately and not dwell
on being labeled an environmentalist because the average American would
consider himself an "environmentalist."
"I don't want to be a
propagandist for anyone," Helvarg said. A journalist must take in
account the human element with everything he does and try and recognize
conflicts of interest, he said.
To avoid press release
bias, Helvarg said a reporter should verify all information he receives,
regardless of which side his personal sympathy lies.
The SEJ convention was
Oct. 2-5 at the University of Arizona in Tucson. |
