The role of campus and local journalism in environmental awareness and initiatives

Statement of the Problem: The issue on the continuing degradation of the earth’s natural resources and the environment are being recognized as world’s serious problem. Our country is not left out in acknowledging this thus; several efforts have also been made. These include the creation and implementation of environmental laws, RA 9003(Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000). Environmental awareness is quite a distortion but through proper and massive information dissemination, the aim can be attained. This evaluative study aims to evaluate the coverage of environmental issues present in the articles of the campus and local municipal newspaper. The environmental articles cover topics on the general environmental issues such as pollution, flooding and storm, tree planting and solid waste management. Since these articles generally have their own nature or purpose, the language functions embedded were also identified. Methodology and Theoretical Orientation: The main method used in the study is qualitative-content analysis. Campus papers in a state university and the municipal local government were surveyed from 2011 to 2014 to determine the coverage of campus and the local government paper in promoting environmental awareness and initiatives. There were 36 environmental articles examined for this study. Articles include news, development communication, features, opinion, and literary articles. One of the aims of the study was to identify the language functions, different emotions and mental attitude. From the lines of the selected articles presented in the study help the reader to inform different environmental issues and disasters. An informal interview to the students, advisers and people in the locality were conducted to support the results of the content analysis. The study revealed that campus papers, as evident in environmental articles promote and inform readers, thus heightening their awareness and perception of the risk. Furthermore, the study also revealed that environmental corner of the newspaper was very useful in promoting information to develop the people awareness thus, motivate them to work on their initiatives to promote environmental protection. Students and local journalist with the creativity and proper framing of the environmental issues can serve on different purposes as seen in the different language function. With the needs of times, journalism is surely here to stay. It is recommended that journalists must be encouraged to be aware of environmental issues and concerns. The prominence of environmental articles should be sustained and prioritized in the campus paper.