When attention drives attention: Issue dynamics in environmental news reporting over five decades

Abstract

This article examines the dynamic relationship between issues in environmental news reporting. The focus of the study is on issue interactions within a single news programme over a 50-year period, covering all news stories on environmental issues in the main public service news programme on Swedish television between 1961 and 2010. The analysis shows a positive correlation between levels of attention to different environmental issues; intense focus on one category of environmental issues does not crowd out other environmental concerns in the news. On the contrary, a surge in interest to one category of environmental problems generates attention to other environmental issues as well.