A RESPONSE TO ''OLD-GROWTH ON NETWORK NEWS: FRAMING OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL

By Sarah Ann Gilbert

FORESTS CONTROVERSY'

NEWS SOURCES AND THE

In "Old-Growth Forests on Network News: News Sources and the Framing of an Environmental Controversy," Carol Liebler and Jacob Bendix' make three major assertions about environmental reporting. They are: Environmental news is often crisis- or event-oriented; Environmental news fails to report on the underlying issues that led to the crisis; and News coverage often lacks adequate explanations of scientific concepts and processes. These three assertions characterize newspaper coverage on the spotted owl issue but fail to characterize coverage of the Pacific salmon - an issue that received an equal amount of attention in the Northwest. A framing analysis that measured spotted owl coverage in two Northwestern newspapers (the Oregonian and Seattle Post-1 nfelli^nicer) between 1990 and 1992 and three news magazines (Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report) between 1990 and 1994 supported Liebler and Bendix's conclusions, but a parallel analysis of salmon coverage during the same period did not. (Both the spotted DWI and some Pacific salmon runs were listed as endangered species during this period.) First, the salmon issue cannot be considered a crisis in the context of traditional news values.- Pacific salmon have been in decline in the Northwest since the turn of the century. In 1894, the federal government issued a warning that salmon were disappearing in the Northwest.^ Despite the lack of a "crisis," the Pacific salmon received a substantial amount of coverage in the Oregonian (1,522 headlines) and the Seatlk Post-Inldligencer (124 headlines) between 1990 and 1992. Salmon also garnered the attention of Time, Neii'su'eek, and U.S. News and World Rq.wrl between 1992 and 1994. Second, news on salmon did cover underlying issues that led to ESA listings of a number of wild salmon runs. Many newspaper articles stated that a history of overfishing and dam building in the Columbia River led to the demise of salmon populations. Two "special reports" that ran in the Seattle Post-lntelti^cncer- "Hatching Trouble" and "Rivers at Risk" - covered the toll that inbreeding had taken on hatchery fish and logging had taken on rivers and spawning habitat.^'^ In a "special report" that ran in the Oregonian,
Sarah Ann Gilbert is a graduate of the Master's Program in Environruefital Communications lit the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is currenti}/ working; in the area as a newspaper reporter.
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"River of Ghosts," more than 130 inches of text discussed the origins of the salmon problem." This section was called "Lessons of the past." News magazine coverage also discussed the historical importance of the salmon, as well as river development that led to the ESA listings. Finally, news on Pacific salmon discussed scientific concepts and processes surrounding the salmon. Many articles contained explanations of salmon migration, spawning, and the return of young salmon to the ocean. Some articles were comprised almost entirely of explanations of scientific concepts as "utility and fishery agency biologists jostled to put their own spins on research showing how increased water flow help young fish migrate downstream" for example/ Explanations of science - or more specifically salmon ecology - were necessary to understand why the lives of salmon were being compromised in the Columbia River basin. In addition, the thrust of most of the articles about the salmon was a desire to save them; they could not be saved without understanding their biological needs. The differences between the results of my study on the newspaper coverage of the Pacific salmon and Liebler and Bendix's results of television coverage of the spotted owl cannot be attributed to the differences between newspaper and television coverage because television coverage paralleled newspaper coverage on the spotted owl issue. Therefore, an alternative explanation for Liebler and Bendix's findings is needed. 1 attribute the differences in coverage to diverging social perceptions about these animals. News coverage reflects a generally negative attitude toward the owl and a positive attitude toward the salmon. The salmon is part of the human social, cultural, and economic sphere in the Northwest in a way that the spotted owl is not. The salmon is an important industrial and sport-fishing resource, as well as a strong symbol of nature and fecundity. "Salmon are not just fish on the Columbia; they are tokens of a way of life."" These attributes define the salmon's significance as greater than that of other animals. The salmon is literally and metaporically attached to humans, and therefore enters, without being questioned, the ethnocentric institution of news. Although the ESA identifies all organisms as equal in value, the news does not. The spotted owl and the salmon were both listed as endangered species under the ESA identifying them as equally important in the eyes of the law, but newspapers acted to negate this equality by degrading the ow] and minimizing its importance while emphasizing the importance of the salmon by documenting its plights, blaming actors and circumstances that hurt the salmon, and attempting to present solutions to the problem,

NOTES 1. Carol Liebler and lacob Bendix, "Old-Growth Forests on Network News: News Sources and the Framing of an Environmental Controversy," journalism & Mass Commuukation Quarterly 73 (spring 1996): 53-65. 2. H.J. Gans, Deciding Whafs News: A Study of CBS Evening Ncivs, NBC Nightly Neii's. Newsweek and Time (New York: Pantheon Books, 1980). 3. C. Wilkinson, Crossing the Next Meridiiw (Island Press: Washington, DC, 1992), 81-113. 4. R. Taylor, "Hatching Trouble: Anglers see decline of wild fish as more than loss of sport"; "Wild salmon in upstream fight for life"; "Salmon
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hatcheries spawning danger for state's wild fish"; "Pressure grows for correction in hatchery course," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 27, 28, 29 November 1991, sec. A, p. 1 and p. 4. 5. R. Taylor, "Rivers at Risk: Fish habitat takes big hit from logging"; "Fish follow in spotted owl's wake"; "Safeguard ideas abound, but effects are unproven," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 1-3 July 1992, sec. A, p. 1. 6. B. Meehan and J.L. Jewett, "River of ghosts," The Sunday Oregonian, 29 October 1995, sec. S, pp. 1-8. 7. L. Lange, "Biologists debate how salmon go with the flow," Seattle Post-Intelligencer/' 25 April 1991, sec. B, p. 1. 8. R.White,The Organic Machine (New york: Hill and Wang, 1995), 89113.

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