Cultivating Public Perception and Policy Initiatives: Understanding the Impact of Environmental Journalism through Focus Group Discussions and Secondary Data Analysis

Influencing public opinion and policy requires environmental media coverage of significant environmental concerns. Through a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates focus group talks and secondary data analysis, this study examines how environmental journalism affects public opinion and policy formation. The views, awareness, and feelings of participants toward environmental journalism were investigated in the focus groups, which were analyzed using NVivo. When it comes to covering climate change and other global environmental challenges, responses showed that environmental journalism is thought to have a positive influence on public opinion and policy decisions. By pointing out that digital media is more effective than print and broadcast media at raising real-time awareness, participants emphasized the disparities in media types. Public action is inspired and empathy is evoked by emotional narrative in environmental journalism, such as that which covers natural disasters. Divergent opinions on how to strike a balance between impartiality and advocacy in environmental media were also found by the survey. Notwithstanding the support for advocacy, a few respondents voiced worries about biases, especially sensationalism and framing, which they believed to be detrimental to public trust. The public was regarded to be greatly engaged by social media and citizen journalism, despite problems with misinformation. Key themes and framing strategies were found through secondary data analysis of environmental news coverage, offering insights into how media sources influence environmental discourse. Overall, the results point to the possibility of enhancing public engagement and contributing to well-informed policy decisions through more focused reporting on environmental issues and cooperation with scientists and legislators. Policymakers, media experts, and environmental journalists who want to solve urgent environmental issues with effective media techniques can find value in this research.