Author/s: Coral Campbell, Erica Smith and Emma Siesmaa
Edition: Volume 51, Number 2, July 2011
Summary: Throughout the world, people have to deal with the issues of global warming and other more direct consequences of environmental change. This paper considers how a local newspaper has an educative function in a small community in advising people of specific issues and learning how to deal with changing resources. Across the period of several months in 2009, the Buloke Times, a local newspaper in the Wimmera-Mallee region of Victoria, Australia, was scanned for articles relating to the issue of water scarcity. In the 24 editions of the paper, 68 articles of various themes were found. The articles/themes were analysed along a number of lines: frequency across time, frequency within each issue, prominence of articles and unusual events. This research paper develops an overview of the role of the newspaper and its capacity to influence and educate the people who constitute its readership.
Keywords: community, local newspaper, information, education
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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 51_2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.