Journalism as a key institution for democracy must embrace its role in addressing the environmental crisis. Our research, based on in-depth interviews with environmental journalists in Slovenia and content analysis of their work, reveals the current state of environmental journalism in Slovenia and the predominant journalistic roles they embrace. Environmental journalists in Slovenia take on various roles: they raise awareness and educate (educator), monitor (watchdog), motivate, propose, and demand changes (advocate), and amplify the voices of citizens (citizen). Environmental journalists, however, faces numerous challenges, with the most pressing being financial, staffing and time constraints, as well as increasing power of public relations. This is also reflected in the media's representation of environmental stories, which are often more superficial rather than in-depth. Worryingly, the data show that the watchdog role, once considered synonymous with journalism as the fourth estate, is the most endangered.
|
