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Show 34 time periods, it is important to note the major changes the 1960s environmental movcmeni brought to environmental coverage. It changed the way environmental reporters saw themselves - they were labeled environmental journalists. Discussing environmental journalism in the 1800s or 1930s is not the same as environmental journalism in the 1990s. Historical context is key to understanding the environmental journalism from any era, and the 1960s, with the increased environmental consciousness in the country, marks a pivotal development in the field. Another explanation for the lack of historical research on the press in relationship to environmental issues is that history is traditionally told through the paradigms of politics, economics, and culture. Furthermore, research on environmental journalism brings together at least two areas of study - journalism history and environmental history. Environmental historian Ted Steinberg wrote: "Environmental history centers on the examination of various relationships - how natural forces shape history, how humankind affects nature, and how those ecological changes then tum around to influence human life once again in a reciprocating pattem.' 194 The field of environmental history emerged out of political and intellectual history in the 1950s and '60s. 9 j During the early years of research in this field, the great person theory was the prominent method of historical analysis, emphasizing the contributions of people such as David Brower, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, Stephen Mather, John Muir, and others. Moving away from this approach to environmental Ted Steinberg, Down 10 Earth: Nature's Ra/e in American History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002),xii 94 9j Richard White, "American Environmental Hi~tory: The Development of a New llistorical Field," The Pacific Historical Review 54, no. 3 (August, 1985), 298. |
