ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how the media's role as political actor evolved, why it continues, and what its implications are for the making of environmental policy. Television news has had to combine the traditional story line and relevance to the audience with strong visuals, which neither radio nor newspapers could do. Environmental events can satisfy these prerequisites—at least some of them can—and that is where the media as a political force has its origin. These criteria for newsworthiness—the dramatic, the new, the bizarre, the timely, the local, the glitzy—may or may not represent what is most consequential, but are, nevertheless, the factors that determine what people read and hear about most frequently. The antienvironmental forces have sought to discredit prevailing environmental polices by discrediting the environmental media, painting them as "sky-is-failing" alarmists who seek out catastrophe for its marketability and who force needless and costly government action by foisting apocalyptic prophesies of doom on a fearful public.
