Media and Overpopulation: Mixed Messages
“Overpopulation is now the dominant problem in all our personal, national, and international planning. No one can do rational personal planning, nor can public policy be resolved in any area unless one first takes into account the population bomb. Schools, politicians, and mass media only touch the edge of the major problem.”
Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich
The Population Bomb, 1968
Ehrlich’s inalienable rights of mankind (sic)
1. The right to eat well.
2. The right to drink pure water.
3. The right to breathe pure air.
4. The right to decent, uncrowded shelter.
5. The right to enjoy natural beauty.
6. The right to avoid regimentation.
7. The right to avoid pesticide poisoning.
8. The right to freedom from thermonuclear war.
9. The right to limit families.
10. The right to educate our children.
11. The right to have grandchildren.
Population headlines from 1900
“Idea of China’s millions”
“Population and wages”
“Question of racial decline”
“Reversal of Malthus”
“When will the world be full?”
“Why not 300 million people?”
Population heads:1950 NYT
“Great Britain reports use (of birth control) increased to 60% of married couples”
“Planned Parenthood reports 333 clinics in U.S.: sees growing acceptance of methods”
“Gen. MacArthur hdqrs bars Mrs. Sanger from visiting Japan to give talks”
Population Headlines: 1968 NYT
“UN Gen. Assembly Soc. Committee backs ‘exclusive right’ of parents to use birth control”
“USSR specialist on capitalist economics, says solution to population explosion can be found only in communism”
Pope Paul VI bans all artificial means of contraception, dismisses warnings of population explosion danger, says threat must be met by socio-economic means, not birth control”
Quotes about baby 6 billion The Arizona Republic: October 1999
“A healthy tree is one that grows and produces fruit”
“ That baby has less than one chance in ten to be born into wealth”
“If the US wants to curb population growth, it should set up more organizations that talk to youth about abstinence”
“Thomas Malthus. . .was wrong in 1798, just as the fearmongers at Zero Population Growth are wrong today”
“Celebrating the birth of the 6 billionth human is like celebrating that a cancer has metastisized”
Septuplets Heads (1997)
“The challenge of septuplets: The pregnancy of Bobbi McCaughey has illustrated the abilities and limits of reproductive medicine, not to mention the wonders of the human body”
“Septuplets’ mother tells of fears, faith in ‘Dateline’ interview”
“Oprah, hospital staff, get in on party for seven”
One lonely negative septuplet headline
“Multiple births provoke debate: Health and ethics experts question fertility treatments that preceded Iowa septuplets and Houston octuplets”
Population-Environment Connection: Media Avoidance
“Journalists are well aware of the controversial nature of the population issue, and prefer to avoid it if possible.”
T. Michael Maher
Univ. of S. Louisiana
Population & Environment, Vol. 18, #4, March 1997
Why?
Americans generally “do not make many direct, unaided connections between population and environment.”
Pew Global Stewardship Initiative
1993
Case Study: Three Topics
Do journalists make the connection between the following problems and overpopulation?
Urban Sprawl
Endangered Species
Water Shortages
(50 randomly selected articles on each topic
from newspapers, magazines, wire services)
Results of Case Study
Population growth mentioned as a cause of the environmental problem:
10.7% of stories
Reducing population growth mentioned as a solution to the environmental problem:
0%
Why is overpopulation ignored?
To purvey the ideology of elites who make money from population growth?
Ignorance? Shallowness of media?
“Spiral of silence?”
Fear of isolation -- need to run with the pack
Remain silent so others can put up with you
Biases common to media stories
1. Simplification:
audiences eschew the complex
2. Personalization:
Individuals cause events rather than institutional, historical or other abstract forces
3. Symbolization:
Audiences want dramatic action, intriguing personality or stirring slogans
R. Entman (1989)
Other possible reasons
Emphasis on people rather than process
Emphasis on crisis rather than continuity
Isolation of stories from each other
Official assurances of normalcy
Summary of Findings
Most expressed deep concern about overpopulation problems
Beyond the bounds of their assigned stories
“Classic conflict form” is a problem
Invisible, slow, impersonal social forces are not in a “story frame”
Journalists’ comments
“I don’t think globally when I write a story; I think, ‘what do the people in this town want to know about?’”
“It’s not the journalists. . .It’s the editors.”
“I’ve got 20 inches to explain why a garter snake is endangered.”
What can environmentalists do to get this on the agenda?
Keep making the connection between population and environment to the media:
“If someone were intelligent enough to mention population, I would mention it in the story.”
Keep making the connection to politicians:
“Officials in these small towns are pretty short-sighted.”
The Population Media Center Interesting organization with an ambitious mission
http://www.populationmedia.org/index.html
Founded in 1998 by William Ryerson
Population Media Center (PMC) strives to improve the health and well being of people around the world through the use of entertainment-education strategies, like serialized dramas on radio and television, in which characters evolve into role models for the audience for positive behavior change. Our mission is to collaborate with the mass media and other organizations worldwide to (1) bring about stabilization of human population numbers at a level that can be sustained by the world's natural resources and to (2) lessen the harmful impact of humanity on the earth's environment. The emphasis of the organization's work is to educate people about the benefits of small families, encourage the use of effective family planning methods, elevate women's status and promote gender equity.
