Exploring media coverage of environmental protection in Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

The study explored the coverage of environmental protection in Harari Mass Media Agency. It used exploratory design focusing on quantitative content analysis and qualitative textual analysis methods. A purposive sampling technique was used to selectively gather data pertinent to the study’s objectives. The findings of the study revealed that Harari Mass Media Agency has given little attention to problems of environmental conservation. This is due to the fact, that the media didn’t focus and considered the importance of these in the contemporary media discourse. In addition, the study indicated that nature protection issues are not included and conspicuously absent in the editorial policy of Harari Mass Media Agency. In addition, the source of news in the above-mentioned media was mainly from higher govern- mental officials. The media highly prioritizing government official narratives over expert perspectives. Thus, this contributed to a distorted representation of environmental articles. The study found out that the limited diversity in news sources hampered the media’s ability to portray and provide an impartial and comprehensive coverage of nature problems. Moreover, the study revealed that the media does not have professional journalist who can do it. This deficiency significantly contributed to the minimal coverage of environmental issues in the media reporting. The study acclaims that the media should provide adequate coverage. Lastly, the study strongly recommends that the media should take proactive measures to enhance environment coverage by revising its editorial policy to incorporate it as a key focus area in the media.