ABSTRACT
In 1990, I wrote an essay about the first two decades of environmental journalism in the United States and was not too optimistic about how this specialty would progress as the years went on. Comparing the environmental reporting of the 1970s to the 1980s, I saw many similarities and not much progress in the quality of the reporting. I criticized it for its focus on event reporting of environmental disasters such as the Bhopal chemical accident and Exxon Valdez oil spill and pollution-oriented problems of Love Canal and Times Beach without looking at root causes. In particular, I singled out a lack of depth and context that confused audiences about the environmental health risks they heard trumpeted in the media (Friedman, 1991). My criticism echoed that of communication researchers and some reporters over the decade (see Carmody, 1995; Dunwoody & Griffin, 1993; Nelkin, 1995; Rogers, 1999; Wilkins, 1987). However, in the 1990s, things changed.
