Media have an environmental role to play 

(First published in Gulf News, January 1, 2010)

2 January, 2010

Dr. Mohamed A Raouf
Program Manager – Environment Research

Environmental policy aims at correcting market and regulatory failures to improve environmental quality. Ideally, environmental policy should be designed to maximise the net benefits to society by achieving the optimal level of environmental quality.

There is a mix of policy tools that can address or influence the environmental policy of any country. The most important policy tools are environmental regulations and economic market-based instruments (incentives).

However, there is also a persuasive measure that is used alongside the other two tools in order to ensure effective implementation of policy and to offset environmental market failures. This approach seeks to change perceptions and priorities by internalising environmental awareness and responsibility into individual decision-making. It uses religion and social pressure to underline the significance of environmental responsibility. This persuasive approach can take the form of education, risk communication, provision of information and knowledge as well as training. The media have an important role to play as an integral part of this tool, just as it has in the case of the first two tools.

Central role

There is no doubt that the media play an instrumental role in modern societies. With regard to environmental policy, media have a central role to play — especially in promoting environmental awareness and education.

In fact, the various media, such as newspapers, radio, TV and the internet, have a two-pronged role. On the one hand, they help to explain the environmental policies, regulations and plans to the public and on the other they reflect the concerns of the public regarding different environmental problems and thus pressure the decision makers to solve a specific environmental issue.

On the macro-level in the environment field, we have a number of precautionary policy tools, such as environmental research, establishing protected areas and environmental planning, as well as a number of corrective policy tools, such as relocation of industries, replacement of old technologies with new and clean technologies and environmental monitoring. Media play an influential role both as a precautionary tool to warn against potential environmental threats and, at the same time, suggesting corrective solutions as well as being a monitoring tool.

The media in the Arabian Gulf, including the UAE, represent an interesting case. Considering the large number of expatriates working in the region, the English-language media have a prominent role. At the same time, the Arabic media have an equally significant presence. However, there is a difference in the way the English-language media and the Arabic media in the UAE cover environmental events. Firstly, they differ in their degree of interest in addressing environmental issues. This is despite the fact that these issues affect people of all ages, religions, cultures and nationalities. In many events where the proceedings are in Arabic, the coverage is done by the Arabic media alone. In the case of events conducted in English, we find only the English-language media are available to report on the proceedings.

Besides, the English-language media seem to be more mature in their approach towards addressing environmental problems — that is clear from the number of analytical articles and the range of environmental topics being discussed. On the other hand, the Arabic media (with a few exceptions, of course) tend to just report or describe — without any analysis — information related to the environment and in many cases they support the viewpoint of a specific organisation, usually a government entity. Discussion and analysis is a key element in raising environmental awareness, getting the message across to the public and in growing people's interest in environmental issues. These seem to be largely missing in the Arabic media.

It is worth mentioning that, in general, the media in the Arabian Gulf and in the UAE in particular are not very concerned about environmental issues. Issues relating to politics, economics, sport, films or even music take precedence over environment-related issues.

In fact, environmental issues are linked to all these issues and, therefore, should figure prominently in the media. However, it is generally the case that the focus turns to the environment when there is a big event like the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference or there is a major environmental incident.

The media can make use of new presentation techniques and methods to get the message on the environment across to the public or the decision maker. Also, media should use easy, simple terms and hold an optimistic view towards environmental problems. This is vital to the success of the media in relation to environmental issues and will enable them to play their rightful role in environmental policy.

Dr Mohammad Abdel Raouf is in charge of environmental research at the Gulf Research Centre in Dubai.

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