Abstract

Various studies suggest that the media plays a pivotal role in addressing environmental issues, hence affecting public discourses and policies about the environment. However, for this expected role to come into effect would depend on the popularity of the media’s environmental news coverages; how many times they are read, how often they are shared, and to what extent people talk about them. Aiming at making environmental news coverages gain more popularity, an Indonesia-based media research body launched a digital environmental campaign called #1Hari1IsuLingkungan (one day one environmental issue). Participants of this campaign were challenged to seek and read one environmental news coverage per day during one month period on 1 - 30 November 2022. They were then asked to create an Instagram story to share their opinion regarding the news coverages. Guided by theories examining information seeking behavior, this study aims to investigate the behavior of the campaign’s participants in seeking information related to environmental issues. To this end, this study employed a mixed, two-phased data collection method consisting of a computer-aided analysis to map the pattern of their participations, and continued with in-depth interviews with 10 selected participants to deeper explore on their information-seeking behavior during their participation in the campaign. This study demonstrates that the participants’ information-seeking behavior during the campaign helped enhance their knowledge of and attitude towards the environmental issues around them. Practically, this study may prompt environmental activists, campaigners, or general public to think about innovative ways to engage people in actions addressing environmental issues.

Presenters

Durrotul Masudah
Lecturer, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanity, Department of Communication Science, Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

2024 Special Focus—The Future We Want: Socio-Environmental Challenges in Times of Climate Emergency

KEYWORDS

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES, DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTAL CAMPAIGN, INFORMATION-SEEKING BEHAVIOR, INDONESIA

Digital Media

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