Correlation, Speculation and the Periodicity of Environmental Journalism

Thomas Hayden, writing for The Last Word on Nothing:

So if it’s not sun spots, and it’s not just an inherent societal attention span, what else could be driving the ups and downs of environmental reporting, at mainstream outlets at least? I think it comes back to the faddishness of journalism. The news business is by definition about the pursuit of novelty. Sure, conflict, personal impact, horrifying disasters and political battles are nice too. But at the end of the day the great majority of reporters, editors, producers and managers in the media are fiends for the new.

Keen insight. Sadly, he’s probably right.

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