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Show 31 the landscapes of the West. Although not always examined as environmental journalists, muckrakers played an important role in putting environmental issues on the public agenda. Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and Ida M. Tarbell, some of the best· known muckrakers of the early twentieth century, arc receiving new attention from research looking through the lens of environmental joumalism.83 Regardless of their classification, the evidence suggests that these writers at the least innucnced the evolution of environmental jow-nalism. Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring helped bring environmental issues to the masses through literature. John Muir, who spread his gospel of conservation in newspapers, magazines, and books, was a dominant force in the debates of land use and conservation around the tum of the century. Another difficulty defining environmental journalism comes from the diverse perspectives and ethical issues in the field. Many practitioners debate whether environmental journalists should follow the journalistic norms of objectivity, or if the role of the environmental journalist connotes advocacy. While some argue that advocacy has no place in environmental journalism, others argue that journalists have a responsibility to advocate on the environment's behalf, and without that advocacy, cannot claim 1he title of environmental journalist. Environmental journalism researcher Joann Valenti summarized the debate: "Environmental journalism has often been criticized for advocacy. Mostly, those writing about environmental issues have been accused of being 11 Neuzil and Kovarik, Mass Media and Environmental Conflict, 95- 102. |
