Rethinking environmental news coverage through Agenda-Setting and the normative function of attributes

Abstract

We examined the dominant substantive and affective attributes in 358 news items related to water and waste management in Colombia over five years. The results revealed that the studied texts focused more on the existence of attributes of environmental problems and on positive emotions related to good management practices, than on the effects and solutions. These results explore how Agenda-Setting theory can provide practical guidance for journalists to rethink their environmental coverage from a normative perspective.