ABSTRACT
A number of anthropological studies have focused upon the question of how particular social problems come to be defined as risks. Pollution beliefs, it has been argued, function to maintain social boundaries and to protect vested interests. Although concerns about environmental issues may have objective roots, they are shaped both by the promotional activities of issue sponsors, and through culture representations. This chapter concentrates upon environmental risk since media reporting is often risk-led, based on anxieties concerning threats to health posed by major incidents, accidents or disasters. However, it is useful to make a distinction between these types of events, which draw attention to themselves, and more “routine” environmental issues that only become publicly visible through claims-making activity. In addition to the qualities of the issues themselves, broader socioeconomic and cultural factors influence the selection of environmental news. A variety of studies indicate that important environmental issues have failed to appear on news media agendas at all.
