Role of the Media



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The media has a huge role to play in conservation, without it many projects wouldn’t have any success. It increases the profile of many projects meaning that public donations are more likely to increase and these are needed to keep the organisations running. The media can also help gain public support which in turn can lead to more government support due to public pressure. It also encourages people to go and visit conservation sites, whether they be national parks in Africa or a zoo or botanic garden in Britain¹. However many believe that the media has a more negative role on conservation. It causes nature to be turned into a tourist attraction and a business, with many protected areas being profited on as they become tourist attractions. The media also only targets high profile species, usually attractive, dangerous or intelligent mammals (charasmatic species) which are easier for people to relate to. This means that many very vulnerable species are forgotten and missed, butterfly shown above. Many species of fish, bird and insect for example are endangered², but as they have less public appeal they are ignored by the media. This can lead to people having an unreal picture as to the scale of the problem as if there are decreasing species at the bottom of an ecosystem or food chain it will have a direct impact later on, for example current decreasing bee numbers which will lead to less pollinated plants and so less habitat and vegetation as a food source³. Publicity can also lead to an increase in conservation problems. An example of this was the Saiga antelope in 1993 which was reduced in numbers by 97% in 10 years due to it being publicised that their horns were similar to that of Rhino. This meant that huge numbers of antelope were killed for their horn but as it prevented Rhino being killed, which were more endangered, there was no media coverage of the dramatic drop in numbers⁴. The media can have both a negative and positive impact of conservation methods, depending upon how it is done and how well controlled it is.

1.       http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10645570801938392

2.       http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0408-hance_fs_archachatinabicarinata.html

3.       http://gofarmer.com/blog/will-the-bee%E2%80%99s-manage-to-pull-through

4.       http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9963-top-10-conservation-successes-and-failures.html