Media and Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs) Roles in Environmental Sustainability Communication in Malaysia

Abstract

Abstract Considering the massive environmental problems occurring in Malaysia, the media and the ENGOs are said to play pivotal roles in delivering environmental information to the mass society in order to increase their awareness, knowledge and practices towards the environment and sustainability. This study sought to shed the light on the type of roles can be played by the Malaysian media and the ENGOs in environmental sustainability communication. For the purpose of this study, 24 interviewees encompassing 13 media interviewees from two media organizations, namely Utusan Malaysia and The Star, as well as 11 ENGOs interviewees from two ENGOs organizations, WWF and MNS. The result of this study indicated that although both media and ENGOs seem to have different organizational backgrounds, particularly the media is a profitable organization whilst ENGOs are more non-profit oriented, when it comes to environmental communication, most of them agreed that they share quite similar roles particularly in informing and educating the public about environmental issues and in conducting research on environment and sustainability matters.