Environmental news - Coverage of the earth summit by Brazilian newspapers

This article examines how two important Brazilian newspapers covered the Un ited Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit). Over all, 649 news items were content analyzed to determine the type of sources used, as well as the kind of issues covered. The analysis showed that gover nment officials were the most frequently cited sources, while environmental ists and scientists were all but ignored as news sources. The analysis also indicated that economic issues were surprisingly prominent in the coverage . These results are compatible with previous studies done in several countr ies and indicate that environmental media are still extremely reliant on "o fficial" voices. The findings also highlight the fact that the range of iss ues covered by the environmental media largely reflects the perceived publi c agenda.