ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION IN BRAZILIAN AMAZONIA - PERSPECTIVES IN UNITED-STATES NEWS MEDIA

While news media play a major role in shaping public opinion and government policy, existing literature suggests that coverage of both the third world and environmental issues is superficial and crisis-oriented. This study uses the example of Amazonian deforestation to explore the quantity and content of coverage in influential American newspapers. We found that coverage included a wide range of (sometimes) contradictory theories regarding the causes of deforestation, and that the amount, but not the nature, of the coverage changed in response to a "crisis."