| OCR Text |
Show 194 parks from 1919 to 1971. With emphasis on presidential visits and regional pride, early news of Utah's national parks illustrated a simple, great-man approach to the national park idea. These accounts continued the boosterism of the frontier press, using the national parks to promote the state and combat cultural insecurities related to the LDS church. Later news was mired in Washington politics and focused primarily on conflict. But from the swamp of politics, a nuanced voice emerged that began to consider the environment as a subject rather than a stage for debate. ln light of arguments that environmental journalism began in the 1960s and 1970s, it is surprising that this journalism did not more successfully address the complexity of ecosystems. This development was a harbinger of more recent debates about objectivity and advocacy in environmental journalism. Because nature does not have its own voice, should environmental journalists advocate on its behalf? That question transcends the scope of this research, but it provides context for more infonned, historically grounded debates in contemporary environmental journalism. Environmental journalism matured from the 191 Os to the 1970s, and it continues to develop. Inquiry into expanded time periods, publications, and environmental issues is necessary to fully illuminate the story of environmental journalism's past. Future research on environmental journalism and Utah 's national parks should include additional local, state, regional, and national newspapers. The role of newspapers in the smaller towns surrounding these national parks could give a new perspective on how environmental journalism developed. Furthermore, generalizations about state, regional, and national coverage could be strengthened and refined by expanding the pool of primary sources. |
