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Between Policy and Risk Communication: Coverage of Air Pollution in Ghanaian Newspapers

Mass media plays an increasingly persuasive role in orienting political decisions, shaping social agendas, influencing individuals’ actions, and interpreting scientific evidence for the public. With growing scientific understanding of the health, social and environmental consequences of air pollutio...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Agyei-Mensah, Samuel, Kyere-Gyeabour, Elvis, Mwaura, Abraham, Mudu, Pierpaolo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9603739/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36293823
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013246
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author Agyei-Mensah, Samuel
Kyere-Gyeabour, Elvis
Mwaura, Abraham
Mudu, Pierpaolo
author_facet Agyei-Mensah, Samuel
Kyere-Gyeabour, Elvis
Mwaura, Abraham
Mudu, Pierpaolo
author_sort Agyei-Mensah, Samuel
collection PubMed
description Mass media plays an increasingly persuasive role in orienting political decisions, shaping social agendas, influencing individuals’ actions, and interpreting scientific evidence for the public. With growing scientific understanding of the health, social and environmental consequences of air pollution, there is an urgent need to understand how media coverage frames these links, particularly in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. This paper examines how the Ghanaian print and electronic media houses are covering air pollution issues given increased efforts at reducing air pollution within the country. The main goal of this work is to track the progress of policies to reduce air pollution. We used a qualitative content analysis of selected newspapers (both traditional and online) between the periods 2016 and 2021 and we found that articles on air pollution have been increasing, with more reportage on impact and policy issues compared to causes of air pollution. A focus group with six members of the media confirmed an interest in covering health and environmental issues, particularly coverage of specific diseases and human-interest pieces. This increasing attention is likely associated with intensifying local, national, and international action to improve air quality in Ghana, and growing awareness of the health impacts of air pollution.
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spelling pubmed-96037392022-10-27 Between Policy and Risk Communication: Coverage of Air Pollution in Ghanaian Newspapers Agyei-Mensah, Samuel Kyere-Gyeabour, Elvis Mwaura, Abraham Mudu, Pierpaolo Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Mass media plays an increasingly persuasive role in orienting political decisions, shaping social agendas, influencing individuals’ actions, and interpreting scientific evidence for the public. With growing scientific understanding of the health, social and environmental consequences of air pollution, there is an urgent need to understand how media coverage frames these links, particularly in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. This paper examines how the Ghanaian print and electronic media houses are covering air pollution issues given increased efforts at reducing air pollution within the country. The main goal of this work is to track the progress of policies to reduce air pollution. We used a qualitative content analysis of selected newspapers (both traditional and online) between the periods 2016 and 2021 and we found that articles on air pollution have been increasing, with more reportage on impact and policy issues compared to causes of air pollution. A focus group with six members of the media confirmed an interest in covering health and environmental issues, particularly coverage of specific diseases and human-interest pieces. This increasing attention is likely associated with intensifying local, national, and international action to improve air quality in Ghana, and growing awareness of the health impacts of air pollution. MDPI 2022-10-14 /pmc/articles/PMC9603739/ /pubmed/36293823 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013246 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Agyei-Mensah, Samuel
Kyere-Gyeabour, Elvis
Mwaura, Abraham
Mudu, Pierpaolo
Between Policy and Risk Communication: Coverage of Air Pollution in Ghanaian Newspapers
title Between Policy and Risk Communication: Coverage of Air Pollution in Ghanaian Newspapers
title_full Between Policy and Risk Communication: Coverage of Air Pollution in Ghanaian Newspapers
title_fullStr Between Policy and Risk Communication: Coverage of Air Pollution in Ghanaian Newspapers
title_full_unstemmed Between Policy and Risk Communication: Coverage of Air Pollution in Ghanaian Newspapers
title_short Between Policy and Risk Communication: Coverage of Air Pollution in Ghanaian Newspapers
title_sort between policy and risk communication: coverage of air pollution in ghanaian newspapers
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9603739/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36293823
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013246
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