Advocates or observers? : Slovenian newsworkers and climate change

Jontes, Dejan (author), Pušnik, Maruša (author), Šiša, Anamarija (author)

This paper analyses perceptions of the climate crisis by newsworkers of Slovenian (online) media and their news coverage of this topic. Through qualitative analysis of the in-depth interviews, the paper offers insights into the attitudes, perceptions, and motivations of selected Slovenian journalists and editors about climate change reporting and new insights into journalism practice and environmental journalism in Slovenia in terms of the peculiarities and contextual factors that can influence coverage of extreme weather events and climate change. The results show that the environmental and climate topics are underrepresented in Slovenian media, and these topics are covered in accordance with newsworthiness and public liking factors, and marketing neoliberal pressures to sell the news and make a profit. Such a commercialization and popularization of environmental journalism might lead to the passiveness of the audiences since it does not mobilize public awareness but rather represents the environmental topic as just another story in the media. The lack of analytical depth, critical problematization, wider contextualization of climate change, and the exaltation of journalistic norms of dramatization, eventization, noveltyization, and personalization prevent grasping the problem holistically.

• Language: English
• Keywords: climate crisis, Anthropocene, environmental journalism, journalistic conventions, editorial politics, interviews
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 69-96
• Numbering: Vol. 30, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-156347
• UDC: 070(497.4):551.583
• ISSN on article: 2232-3716
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11214246
• COBISS.SI-ID: 196075267
• Publication date in RUL: 21.05.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Anthropological notebooks
• Publisher: Društvo antropologov Slovenije = Slovene Anthropological Society
• ISSN: 2232-3716
• COBISS.SI-ID: 256898816

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

Prispevek analizira, kako novinarji slovenskih (spletnih) medijev dojemajo podnebno krizo in poročajo o njej. S kvalitativno analizo poglobljenih intervjujev ponuja vpogled v stališča, zaznave in motivacijo izbranih slovenskih novinarjev in urednikov pri poročanju o podnebnih spremembah ter nove vpoglede v novinarsko prakso in okoljsko novinarstvo v Sloveniji z vidika posebnosti in kontekstualnih dejavnikov, ki lahko vplivajo na poročanje o ekstremnih vremenskih dogodkih in pod-nebnih spremembah. Rezultati kažejo, da so okoljske in podnebne teme v slovenskih medijih premalo zastopane, obravnavane pa so v skladu z dejavniki objavljanja in všečnosti javnosti ter marketinškimi neoliberalnimi pritiski po prodaji novic in ustvarjanju dobička. Takšna komercializacija in popularizacija okoljskega novinarstva bi lahko vodila v pasivnost občinstva, saj ne mobilizira zavedanja javnosti, temveč predstavlja okoljsko temo kot le še eno zgodbo v medijih. Pomanjkanje analitične poglobljenosti, kritičnega problematiziranja, širše kontekstualizacije podnebnih sprememb ter povzdigovanje novinarskih norm dramatizacije, eventizacije, novosti in personalizacije, namreč onemogočajo celostno dojemanje problema.

• Keywords: podnebna kriza, antropocen, okoljsko novinarstvo, novinarske konvencije, uredniška politika, intervjuji

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0400
• Name: Družbena pogodba v 21. stoletju

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: BI-ME/21-22-024
• Name: Okoljevarstvena agenda v medijih: slovensko-črnogorska primerjalna analiza