Sustainable Environment, Unsustained Attention

Public interest in the environment has been slowly declining in recent years. The media are regarded as a major influence in the amount of attention devoted to environmental problems. This is logical, given that people obtain information about events that take place outside their immediate circle by indirect means. The international nature of many environmental issues makes it difficult for people to form their own judgments, and many environmental problems are not directly seen or felt by most of us. To learn about these problems, we are forced to rely on information disseminated by others, such as politicians or environmental groups, usually via the media.

This study looks in more depth at the processes that are important in the formation of opinions about the environment, and focuses specifically on the importance of the media and media use. It is divided into three parts. The first part consists of a literature review. The second part comprises secondary analyses of survey data on the reading and viewing behaviour of the Dutch and their opinions about the environment; it looks among other things at trust in information sources, various newspapers and television channels. A number of Dutch citizens engaged in debate on environmental topics for this study; the report of these focus groups constitutes the third and final part of the report.