IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i18p6516-d410161.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Media Reporting on Air Pollution: Health Risk and Precautionary Measures in National and Regional Newspapers

Author

Listed:
  • Steven Ramondt

    (Department of Communication Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
    Psychological Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA 95344, USA)

  • A. Susana Ramírez

    (Public Health, University of California, Merced, CA 95344, USA)

Abstract

Exposure to air pollution is one of the primary global health risk factors, yet individuals lack the knowledge to engage in individual risk mitigation and the skills to mobilize for the change necessary to reduce such risks. News media is an important tool for influencing individual actions and support for public policies to reduce environmental threats; thus, a lack of news coverage of such issues may exacerbate knowledge deficits. This study examines the reporting of health risks and precautionary measures regarding air pollution in national and regional print news. We conducted a content analysis of two national and two local newspapers covering the USA’s most polluted region during a 5-year period. Coders identified information on threat, self-efficacy, protective measures and information sources. Nearly 40% of air pollution news articles mentioned human health risks. Fewer than 10% of news stories about air pollution provided information on the precautionary measures necessary for individuals to take action to mitigate their risk. Local newspapers did not report more threat (Χ 2 = 1.931, p = 0.165) and efficacy (Χ 2 = 1.118, p = 0.209) information. Although air pollution levels are high and continue to rise at alarming rates, our findings suggest that news media reporting is not conducive to raising environmental health literacy.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Ramondt & A. Susana Ramírez, 2020. "Media Reporting on Air Pollution: Health Risk and Precautionary Measures in National and Regional Newspapers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-10, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:18:p:6516-:d:410161
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/18/6516/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/18/6516/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kasisomayajula Viswanath & Leland K Ackerson, 2011. "Race, Ethnicity, Language, Social Class, and Health Communication Inequalities: A Nationally-Representative Cross-Sectional Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(1), pages 1-8, January.
    2. Jamie K. Wardman, 2008. "The Constitution of Risk Communication in Advanced Liberal Societies," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(6), pages 1619-1637, December.
    3. Paul Brown & Linda Cameron & Ricardo Cisneros & Rachel Cox & Erin Gaab & Mariaelena Gonzalez & Steven Ramondt & Anna Song, 2016. "Latino and Non-Latino Perceptions of the Air Quality in California’s San Joaquin Valley," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Kathleen M. Gray, 2018. "From Content Knowledge to Community Change: A Review of Representations of Environmental Health Literacy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-17, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Johanna Amalia Robinson & Rok Novak & Tjaša Kanduč & Thomas Maggos & Demetra Pardali & Asimina Stamatelopoulou & Dikaia Saraga & Danielle Vienneau & Benjamin Flückiger & Ondřej Mikeš & Céline Degrende, 2021. "User-Centred Design of a Final Results Report for Participants in Multi-Sensor Personal Air Pollution Exposure Monitoring Campaigns," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-18, November.
    2. Samuel Agyei-Mensah & Elvis Kyere-Gyeabour & Abraham Mwaura & Pierpaolo Mudu, 2022. "Between Policy and Risk Communication: Coverage of Air Pollution in Ghanaian Newspapers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-18, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rohini Chakravarthy & Sarah C Stallings & Michael Williams & Megan Hollister & Mario Davidson & Juan Canedo & Consuelo H Wilkins, 2020. "Factors influencing precision medicine knowledge and attitudes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Katarina Giritli Nygren & Maja Klinga & Anna Olofsson & Susanna Öhman, 2021. "The Language of Risk and Vulnerability in Covering the COVID-19 Pandemic in Swedish Mass Media in 2020: Implications for the Sustainable Management of Elderly Care," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-15, September.
    3. Erin Lebow-Skelley & Sarah Yelton & Brandi Janssen & Esther Erdei & Melanie A. Pearson, 2020. "Identifying Issues and Priorities in Reporting Back Environmental Health Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-19, September.
    4. Ningyuan Guo & Ziqiu Guo & Shengzhi Zhao & Sai Yin Ho & Daniel Yee Tak Fong & Agnes Yuen Kwan Lai & Sophia Siu-chee Chan & Man Ping Wang & Tai Hing Lam, 2021. "Digital inequalities in health information seeking behaviors and experiences in the age of web 2.0: A population-based study in Hong Kong," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-16, March.
    5. Li, LiLi & Zeng, Yiwu & Zhang, Zhonggen, 2020. "Impact of Internet use on Health outcomes of Rural Residents: Evidence from China," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304177, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Brenda D. Koester & Stephanie Sloane & Elinor M. Fujimoto & Barbara H. Fiese & Leona Yi-Fan Su, 2021. "What Do Childcare Providers Know about Environmental Influences on Children’s Health? Implications for Environmental Health Literacy Efforts," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-11, May.
    7. Andrew R. Binder & Katlyn May & John Murphy & Anna Gross & Elise Carlsten, 2022. "Environmental Health Literacy as Knowing, Feeling, and Believing: Analyzing Linkages between Race, Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Status and Willingness to Engage in Protective Behaviors against Health ," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-17, February.
    8. Man Ping Wang & Xin Wang & Tai Hing Lam & Kasisomayajula Viswanath & Sophia S Chan, 2013. "Health Information Seeking Partially Mediated the Association between Socioeconomic Status and Self-Rated Health among Hong Kong Chinese," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-7, December.
    9. Jamie K. Wardman & Ragnar Löfstedt, 2018. "Anticipating or Accommodating to Public Concern? Risk Amplification and the Politics of Precaution Reexamined," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(9), pages 1802-1819, September.
    10. Goulden, Murray & Spence, Alexa & Wardman, Jamie & Leygue, Caroline, 2018. "Differentiating ‘the user’ in DSR: Developing demand side response in advanced economies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 176-185.
    11. Barbara Gomez-Aguinaga & Ana L. Oaxaca & Matt A. Barreto & Gabriel R. Sanchez, 2021. "Spanish-Language News Consumption and Latino Reactions to COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-15, September.
    12. Marti Lindsey & Shaw-Ree Chen & Richmond Ben & Melissa Manoogian & Jordan Spradlin, 2021. "Defining Environmental Health Literacy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-15, November.
    13. Jung-Min Kwak & Ju-Hee Kim, 2022. "Psychometric Properties of the Korean Version of the Environmental Health Literacy Scale," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-13, March.
    14. Laura N. Rickard, 2021. "Pragmatic and (or) Constitutive? On the Foundations of Contemporary Risk Communication Research," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 466-479, March.
    15. Helene Hermansson, 2012. "Defending the Conception of “Objective Risk”," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(1), pages 16-24, January.
    16. Shereen Elshaer & Lisa J. Martin & Theresa A. Baker & Erin Roberts & Paola Rios-Santiago & Ross Kaufhold & Melinda Butsch Kovacic, 2023. "Environmental Health Knowledge Does Not Necessarily Translate to Action in Youth," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-14, February.
    17. Maureen Y. Lichtveld & Hannah H. Covert & Mya Sherman & Arti Shankar & Jeffrey K. Wickliffe & Cecilia S. Alcala, 2019. "Advancing Environmental Health Literacy: Validated Scales of General Environmental Health and Environmental Media-Specific Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-12, October.
    18. Man Ping Wang & Kasisomayajula Viswanath & Tai Hing Lam & Xin Wang & Sophia S Chan, 2013. "Social Determinants of Health Information Seeking among Chinese Adults in Hong Kong," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(8), pages 1-7, August.
    19. Yoshiki Ishikawa & Hiromu Nishiuchi & Hana Hayashi & Kasisomayajula Viswanath, 2012. "Socioeconomic Status and Health Communication Inequalities in Japan: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-9, July.
    20. Dominic Balog‐Way & Katherine McComas & John Besley, 2020. "The Evolving Field of Risk Communication," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(S1), pages 2240-2262, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:18:p:6516-:d:410161. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.