Volume||4||Issue||08||August-2016||Pages-5588-5595||ISSN(e):2321-7545

Website: http://ijsae.in
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18535/ijsre/v4i08.01
Media’s Support in Promoting Environment Awareness
Authors
Aseen Khan
Lecturer in Economics, Govt.College Govindgarh, Alwar (Rajasthan)
[email protected]
ABSTRACT
Environment is the basic need of life like food and water. But our actions have aggravated it severely.
Realising our mistake we have taken commendable steps to reform it and a proper media attention might
give a higher success rate to any mission related to environment. Most recent steps by the Government of
India for promoting sanitation ‘Swachchha Bharat Abhiyan’ has got success by the united efforts of the
Government and media. Media has always covered social and environmental issues thus it is the most
revolutionary device for spreading consciousness towards environment protection. Here in this paper, I
have put all my endeavours to throw some light on the topic “ Media's support in promoting environment
awareness".
Key Words: Environment,Media,Awareness,Government,Protection

INTRODUCTION
Environment is a basic need for all living beings because every necessity for them depends on it. Unless the
environment is protected, the existence of life on the planet Earth would be impossible. That is why
environmental issues have become globally important. All people must give their contribution for the
betterment of environment.
In the past decades, sustainability and environmental awareness have gained media attention. Due to
increasing media coverage, our society is becoming more aware of the effects that our activities put on the
health of the environment. In this regard the media has a big role to play in making people aware of
environment issues and taking actions to protect the environment. Global media channels reach nearly 1.5
billion people across the globe. Through this data a conclusion can be derived that most of the people are
getting environmental awareness through media. Global warming, Ozone depletion, Climate change are the
current global environment problems the world is facing. How do people from different cultures perceive
these problems? How do they react to them? The aim of this study is to figure out what factors are most
important in explaining different levels of awareness concerning environmental problems and to compare
the level of awareness as well as the actual behaviour of people living in developing and developed
countries towards environment.
Media has played an important role in setting perceptions and creating awareness on environmental issues.
Government officials, scientists, journalists have shaped government policies for more than thirty years.
When the world saw the picture of the earth, photographed from space during1960's, awareness of the earth
as a whole system, fragile and finite, became a paradigm of our era (Dryzek, 1997). This awareness was
accompanied by an insight of environmental issues that our earth is facing. Geographers argue that
environmental issues today have drawn the attention of the common man as environmental derogation and
pollution have assumed global dimension and even threatening the survival of mankind (Singh, 2000). Due

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to this, environmental problems and the aftermaths of human activities such as economic development,
population explosion, and land degradation among others were given an increasingly political character.
One of the most dire problems facing countries is environmental crisis which threatens to precipitate and
deepen the countries' precarious economic and social state. Everyone needs to understand that, among
otherthings, this environmental crisis is a result of excessive use of natural resources and not so wisely
planned development projects, promoted by rapid population growth (EPA,1997). As a result, many
countries over the last few decades, have faced a serious degradation of nature‟s gifts and damage to the
environment and human health. The media used for the investigation of environmental awareness are
newspaper, radio and television programs which are widely and frequently used modern media. There is a
set of ideas about media tasks in society, like heralding information about events and conditions in society
and the world, facilitating innovation, adaptation and advancement (McQuail, 1994). Awareness promoting
tasks performed by the media and several environment protection clubs and organizations that deal with
environmental protection have not got huge success. It is noted that both urban and rural people were not
educated properly about the mode of destruction and protection of the environment.
One of the causes of the deep rooted environmental problems in a country is exigency of awareness which is
at the very soul of the improper managementand utilization of environmental resources (EPA, 2003a). The
special emphasis of this study is on the role of media in creating environmental awareness with the
underlying concept of media being a very broad one.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION :

Each generation inherits from the previous generation knowledge of science, inherited wealth and natural
resources. But nowadays we exploit natural resources excessively. This tendency will pose sever threat the
coming generations in the form of less drinking water, less food grains, less fresh air for breathing. As the
burden of population is increasing on earth, the availability of air, water, land will become low. The
world is grappling with the crisis. The mountains are melting constantly. Forests are being cut.The water
in the rivers has been reduced. Every year thousands of people are languishing in the absence of water we
should for aware. By creating awareness amongst people we can have a beautiful world.
Human existence and its development depends on natural resources. Most of the resources are scarce and
take a lot of time to replenish naturally. In such a scenario a development model where growth and
expansion of economy is based on hyper consumerism is a sure recipe of disaster. The throwaway culture
puts extreme pressure on precious natural resources. Take the case of cars. Till a generation ago those who
owned a car (they were few in number) lived with that car for the rest of their lives. Today on an average a
car owner is changing car every 3 to 5 years.
Role of Media in Environmental Awareness:
The role of media is very important in shaping public awareness about environment awareness i.e. global
climate change and associated actions. When we discuss the role of media, we focus on three key issues- to
inform, to educate and to entertain.
The different media sources considered can be categorized as:
(a) Mass media (radio, television, newspaper, magazines, etc.)
(b) Institutional media (school, government officials or village leaders, etc.)
(a) Mass Media
Environmental Awareness Created by Mass Media :
One of the most effective way of getting the message across to the largest possible audience in a country as
vast and diverse like India is through mass media, including television and the English and vernacular press.
media plays a vital role in creative awareness or questions.Both these media have the potential of being
extremely effective tools for environmental communication, but have not been sufficiently exploited for this
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purpose so far. Most environmental documentaries shown on TV today attract few viewers because of the
academic or pedantic manner in which they are presented. Similarly, although many English newspapers are
now carrying more and more features on environmental issues, they are usually superficially researched and
poorly written. Vernacular papers still carry very little or no environmental news.Newspaper, radio and
television are the most widely and frequently used modern mass media in India .
Print Media (Newspapers) :
Print media, which is still dominant and most influential compared to electronic media can play a big role in
environmental protection. Environmental reporting can contribute a lot for awareness. The concept of
environmental protection is a reality pertaining to livelihoods. A few print and broadcast media had offered
columns and feature programs on the environment. But the overall coverage is quite primitive and limited.
Environmental reporting is a focused subject now. A media person can give general knowledge about waste
concerning the environment.
Since independence, the number of Indian newspapers has multiplied several folds. In the 1950s 214 daily
newspapers were published in the country. Out of these, 44 were English language dailies while the rest
were published in various regional and national languages. This number rose to 2,856 dailies in 1990 with
209 English dailies. The total number of newspapers published in the country reached 35,595 newspapers by
1993 (3,805 dailies).
Today Indian newspapers are brought out in more than 93 languages and dialects. With an average of about
50 minutes the daily amount of time spent on reading the newspaper, “the backbone of news” in India, is
considerably high.
After „Times of India‟ abandoned its weekly column, none of India‟s daily newspapers has a regular
column on environmental news. The focus is mainly on local and national issues like air, water and noise
pollution as well as deforestation. In contrast to that global environmental problems are mentioned very
rarely. A slight tendency towards a motivational coverage of environmental issues can be observed in the
regional language newspapers, e.g. when enlightening farmers on the negative consequences of the use of
pesticides.
Roughly, it can be said that India‟s most important newspapers like The Times of India, The Hindu,
Hindustan Times and The Indian Express have an article on environmental issues at least every second day
with Times of India doing the best job in terms of frequency. There are many environment journalists who
have chosen their subject out of true commitment. Second, the issue of environment is competing with all
the other issues covered in the newspapers whereby the most severe selection criterion is the news
worthiness of an issue. The interest of the reader as far as news on environment is concerned is supposed to
be still fairly low by the editors. Nevertheless all of the interviewed editors and journalists felt that there has
been an increase in the number of articles on environment both due to a higher awareness and interest of
their readers (this is especially true for the younger generation) and the visible deterioration of the state of
nature.
Awareness campaign by Newspapers :
Dainik Bhaskar campaign- Daink Bhaskar a leading hindi newspaper of India started „Jal Bachao Abhiyan‟
among its readers in different states and it had a great impact on readers. „Jal Satyagrah‟ initiative is being
organised for a decade in the month of April and May by Dainik Bhaskar as a special drive in summers. The
objective of the campaign is to create awareness and invoke individuals to 'Save Water'. The campaign
encourages people to take a pledge; inducing them to save 15% water in their daily usage.
The initiative received "Award of Honor" from Pawan Kumar Bansal, Union Cabinet, Minister of
Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources. To promote this cause the group, undertook various activities
and organised a conference with experts from UNICEF, UNESCO and International Commission for
Irrigation and Drainage. The initiative reaches out to individuals via ads, full page editorial content on ways
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to save water.In the next stage of Jal Satyagraha Campaign a detailed coverage was carried out in all
editions under a central plan, in which awareness on scarcity of water and solution to it were covered. It
included coverage on demand and supply of water at city level, need of long term planning to meet the water
demand, condition of water network in cities need of its maintenance and cleaning and maintenence of
ponds, wells and baories.Neha Mawani associated with this Campaign says, Water is precious and nature
has been more than bountiful on India.But today conditions are different.Most of the lakes, rivers, wells and
old baories are drying. We have used this most precious gift of nature recklessly by not giving a thought on
recharge and maintainence of water resourses.
Radio :
Radio is cheap and easily accessible medium. Its signals cover almost the whole country. However, on
average there are only 4.4 radio/transistors sets per 100 person. 80% of which are in urban homes Only
about six million sets left with 525 million rural population. Furthermore the frequency of listening to the
radio is relatively low: only 35% of the interviewees declared to listen to the radio regularly, most of them
ranking between half an hour and two hours per day. In addition to the relatively small number of people
listening to the radio the role of radio in creating environmental awareness cannot be considered an
important one due to the fact that there are only very few regular environmental programs, although there is
an instruction by Supreme Court for all media that programs on environment should be regularly broadcast.
On the national level of broadcasting news on environment are very scarce. If news on environment are
broadcast this is most often at the regional level. In short, radio is well below its potential in creating
environmental awareness and over the last few years no increase in broadcasts on environment has been
observed.
Television :
India has more than 150 million TV homes, of which 25% use direct-to-home satellite and 51% receive
cable TV. A TV digitisation drive is under way. There are nearly 800 licensed satellite TV stations. Around
half of these are news-based outlets, and news programmes often outperform entertainment output.
Doordarshan, the public TV, operates multiple services, including flagship DD1, which reaches some 400
million viewers. Multichannel, direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV is a huge hit. Major platforms Dish TV,
Tata-Sky, Sun Direct, Big TV and Airtel Digital TV have millions of subscribers. State-owned Doordarshan
Direct runs a free-to-air DTH service.
The Above data shows that media sensation has spread and spreading rapidly. Television has become a new
status symbol even in remote villages. A further advantage of television as an educational media is that it is
helpful in teaching practical work. A televised presentation can be as clear as a face-to-face demonstration.
With an average amount of 138 minutes spent on watching television per day and more than 50% out of all
the interviewees watching television two to three hours per day, television dominates newspaper and radio
not only in the frequency of usage, but also in the amount of time spent on it. Discovery Channel, National
Geographic Channel and Animal Planet channel are presenting wildlife and drawing common men‟s
attention on environment. A definite obstacle for environment playing an even more prominent role in media
is commercialization. Since many editors feel that “you can get no money out of environment”, environment
is not an agenda.
Awareness campaign :
The nation's leading tv channel group NDTV has launched a unique campaign in April
2008 NDTV Toyota green campaign. This constant 24-hour program has stars and celebrities participating
in this program. It was an effort in creating awareness for environmental issues among people. The
campaign started The Nobel laureate Dr. R.k. Pachauri,Jairam Ramesh (honorable former minister of India,
forest and environment) and many film stars.

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A first-of-its-kind award in India, Green Awards aim to recognise excellence in all sections of the society-
Rural, Urban, Corporate, Domestic, Educational Institutions and Resident Welfare Associations.
Godrej Group, along with NDTV, recently launched India‟s first-of-its-kind environment-based reality show
– „Green Champion‟. Godrej Green Champion will focus on raising awareness of issues that plague our
environment. This reality show will emphasise that the future of our nation lies in the hands of the youth. It
will bring to the fore key environmental issues and highlight the positive impact created by even the smallest
of „green‟ changes.
Zee Media Corporation Ltd, launched the fourth edition of India‟s biggest environment awareness
initiative „My Earth My Duty‟. My Earth My Duty has proven to be an essential platform provided by an
Indian media house in bringing behavioral change in Indian citizenship, especially youth. The initiative has
been able to sensitize and encourage people to take adequate steps to conserve the Earth and more so for our
children and grandchildren.
Zee Media has partnered with Ministry of Youth – National Service Scheme (NSS) and Nehru Yuva Kendra
Sangathan, Para-military forces-Border Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Central Reserve Police
Force, ETF, Brahm Kumari Samaj, Centre for Media Studies and others to maximize the reach and impact
of the initiative.
From the issues like pollution to the climate change, the media had been playing a vital role in creating
awareness and raise issues to the pertaining topic of environment. The media has been pivotal in covering
the entire country of India in raising environment issues like drought in Gujarat, Air pollution in Delhi,
Ground water level depletion in Chennai and pollution from coal mines in Jharia, west Bengal. It is still to
be confirmed that the role of mass media is one of the most important factors underlying the knowledge of
environmental problems: This can only be true on the conditions that first, mass media are accessible to
large proportions of the population, second, are spending some time on environmental issues and third,
people are interested in information on ecological issues provided by the media so that they view or listen to
the corresponding programs as well as read newspaper articles or other written publications dealing with
environmental issues
New Media ( Social Media and Internet ) :
There is a growing population of the young that are ardent users of new media platforms. With Facebook or
Twitter, youths today are very much connected with each other and other global/local issues through the
internet. Social media platforms are also utilized by industry and government agencies as a preferred tool of
communication with the general public.
The number of internet users in India has reached 354 million by the end of June 2015. The latest figure
indicates that India has more internet users than the population of the US and become the second largest
country by the number of internet users after China. According to the report published by the Internet And
Mobile Association Of India (IAMAI), the internet users in India has grown 17% in the initial 6 months of
this year (2015), adding 52 million new users.
India Water Portal is a website that shares knowledge and builds communities around water and related
issues in India. Managed by Arghyam, the Portal has become a valuable archive of resources, working
papers, reports, data, articles, news, events, opportunities and discussions on water.India Water Portal is a
platform that empowers the youth to share experiences and solutions, talk to experts, join conversations and
learn about the work that others are doing to conserve our fast depleting water resources.
Institutional Media
At present environmental education has become an integral component of National Policy on Education for
the first time after independence. Now environment science has become a compulsory subject in school and
college education. The policy states "there is a need to create consciousness of the environment which must
permeate all ages and all sections of the society beginning with the child. Environmental consciousness
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should inform teaching in schools and colleges and should be integrated in the entire education process".
Although there was no separate environmental education policy and plan of action either at the Union or the
State levels, environmental education had been influenced by politics and plans of other sectors and
strategies of environmental education have been outlined stage-wise and subject-wise in the National
Curriculum Frame Work. By scanning the curriculum evidence has been found that environmental education
concepts in terms of awareness and knowledge seem to be adequately covered, while the development of
skills for the study of environment and environmental ethics, attitudes and actions need strengthening
(Bandhu, 1999).
The most recent developments are the introduction of Environmental Science as compulsory course for all
the undergraduates after the invention of Supreme Court and the introduction of Environmental Studies as a
curricula area at primary stage. Environmental Studies combines science with social studies and
environment and stresses the link between teaching and the immediate environment of the child. Although
the introduction of Environmental Studies in primary stage should definitely be welcomed, since it
motivates children at an early age to deal with problems of environmental pollution, it is too early to
evaluate how successful a subject like Environmental Studies can be in creating environmental awareness
and altering the behavior of the children in an more environmentally friendly way. The problem
environmental studies has to face is a lack of teachers that are competent to teach environmental issues. At
the upper levels, environmental concepts are extensively covered in other subjects like science, geography,
economics and sociology, but there is no special subject focusing on environment and hence no specific
grade for knowledge on environmental issues. Through all levels ther should be a stress on local or national
environmental problems. Recent developments in the education at Indian schools like the introduction of
Environmental Studies definitively prove that as far as educational policy is concerned there is an
understanding for the importance of promoting environmental issues. The introduction of Environmental
Studies as an independent subject is an example for the upgrading of environmental issues and will enable
teachers to address ecological subjects more extensively and effectively.
Level of Environmental Awareness
After discussing the most important factors in creating environmental awareness, their potentials and
weaknesses as well as looking at their specific presence in India, the next paragraph will focus on the
resulting actual level of environmental awareness. Although more than tree third of the interviewees claimed
to feel that environmental pollution is an extremely urgent problem, their confidence in this belief weakened
when comparing the priority of environmental pollution with other problems Indian society has to face. It is
striking that people do think of the problems mentioned above as interrelated, but do not see the connection
between environmental destruction and many of India‟s urgent problems. This is probably one reason for the
fact that priorities are generally not set on environment. An education policy launched on arising a higher
level of environmental awareness should stress addressing the causal relationship between destruction of
environment on the one hand and social as well as health problems on the other hand and should point at the
fact that especially the poorer, less educated people are exposed to environmental pollution. Making people
aware of the relatedness of environmental and social problems could push the issue of environment more
towards the top of the agenda.
If we talk about the most recent event in India „Svachha Bharat Abhiyan‟ by the government of India is
perfect example, credit of it‟s success goes to proper media attention and this attention has spread awareness
among citizens across the country. Same phenomena goes with the “MaryadaAbhiyan” by Hindustan Zinc
which is an integrated part of Svachh Bharat abhiyan aimed at Constructing toilets in the country and set the
country free from open air toilet. The Internet as a Source for Environmental Information The Internet‟s
wide reach and accessibility make the best source for the people all over the world to find information about
climate change,environmentalism, and how to be green. The Internet is more convenient for getting news.
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Pointing a browser to any of the many Internet news sites that are online will bring up all of the latest
headline news stories as well as many others organized by topic. Internet is not limited to computers only.
One can access internet anytime anywhere with a fast pace speed on a 3G or 4G connection. Youtube,
Vimeo etc. video websites are a rich source of information. Just one touch on your smartphone and the
world will be on your phone. Thus these advanced technologies have strengthened the environment
consciousness.

CONCLUSIONS:
The role of the media to raise the community concerns and commitment for social and environmental issue
is a very critical one. Awareness creation for the protection of the environment and the sustainable use of
finite resources are matters that directly concern each citizen. The media can be an instrument in breaking
the silence that surrounds the environmental problems and in creating an environment that encourages
discussions of how the community can participate and change their behavior. It is truly crucial to raise
public awareness of environmental issues. Media's efforts to sensitize the public about environment issues
and its continuing central role in the struggle against the cause of environmental problems are indispensable.
However, the level of involvement of the media in the country to address environmental challenges is only
event based. Environmental issues have not yet reached a stage where they are the media's prime agenda.
The media fails to take a creative approach in producing stories about environmental protection and gives
insufficient attention to environmental degradation and its consequences. The media does not seem to be in a
position to create environmental awareness to the public in a given geographical area. The major media
focus even now is on issues that take place around the big cities, there is no diversified community media at
grass root level. Furthermore, the media does not give fair and optimal space and time to environmental
issues. No detailed studies to ascertain the role of the media in environmental awareness issues have been
done unlike other development and political issues. Even though some activities undertaken so far are
positive, the work done to date in the study area is very inadequate compared to the consequences of
environmental challenges.

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 11. Chaturvedi, Keshav ( 2015 ) Be a responsible consumer to save Earth : On World Environment The
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