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No buzz for bees: Media coverage of pollinator decline
Scott L Althaus1, May R Berenbaum2, Jenna Jordan3
1Cline Center for Advanced Social Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820-7478; salthaus@illinois.edu maybe@illinois.edu.
Summary
Journalistic coverage of pollinator declines is minimal compared to climate change. Despite increasing concern, news media pay little attention to the pollinator crisis, especially in international outlets.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Media Studies
- Conservation Biology
Background:
- Insect biomass and diversity declines are a growing scientific concern.
- Public awareness regarding pollinator declines remains unclear.
- Journalistic attention patterns can inform public awareness campaigns.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess journalistic attention to pollinator declines in public information sources.
- To compare media coverage of pollinator decline with climate change.
- To understand trends in news reporting on pollinator populations over four decades.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the Global News Index database.
- Analyzed nearly 25 million news items from American national newspapers and international wire services.
- Tracked news attention to pollinator topics and climate change from the 1980s to 2019.
Main Results:
- Attention to pollinator populations is vanishingly low compared to climate change coverage.
- In 2007–2019, 1.39% of news mentioned climate change, versus 0.02% for pollinator populations and 0.007% for pollinator declines.
- Increased attention to pollinator declines was primarily observed in US national newspapers.
- Pollinator stories are often marginalized in science sections, unlike prominent climate change coverage.
Conclusions:
- Media coverage of the pollinator crisis significantly lags behind scientific concern and climate change reporting.
- Increased linkage between pollinator populations and climate change in news reports may foster public awareness and policy change.
- Targeted efforts are needed to elevate public discourse on pollinator declines.
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