Environmental Risks and the Media

This work examines both large-scale disasters such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, and environmental issues such as the use of pesticides in farming. The contributors consider the tensions between entertainment and information in media coverage of the environment. Issues discussed include: how did western media coverage of Chernobyl contrast with the reporting of other accidents at Western nuclear plants? Does the media's practice of ranking environmental news stories, with spectacular "natural" disasters like earthquakes and floods taking precendence over ongoing issues such as lead in petrol, exacerbate the public tendency to overestimate sudden and violent risks and underestimate chronic long-term ones.