Coverage of Environmental Issues by Kenyan Newspapers: A Content Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out the importance given to environmental issues by two Kenyans dailies, the Nation and the Standard (1991 to 1993). It was based on the assumption that the mass media play a major role in attracting attention to certain issues and setting the public agenda. The researcher used content analysis to determine the priority given to, nature and extent of such environmental coverage. Among the more important findings from the analysis of a total of 2190 newspaper copies were that: 1) Coverage actually continued to decrease from 1991 to 1993; 2) the two dailies did not give too much importance to environmental issues, tucked most of the coverage in the inside pages, mostly used shorter stories, and did not illustrate them; 3) Tourism and Wildlife received vastly more coverage than any other environmental issue and soil erosion received least coverage; 4) Events like the Gulf War, the Rio Con- ference, peak tourist seasons, and localized environmental disasters prompted most coverage. Little was done by the media in terms of proactive coverage or agenda setting on preventive environmental articles but the Standard gave a bit more prominence to the coverage by placing more of the articles in the editorial pages and in regular columns. It also covered a greater variety of environmental topics. This study concludes that Kenya dailies need to give more importance to envi- ronmental coverage in terms of the prominence given to articles and the subjects they cover. They also should be more proactive.