Abstract

The neglect of environmental reporting in television programming in Nigeria has led to a predicament. As global interest and attention mounts, with the Western media playing a positive and vital role in how the environment can impact the lives of people now and in the future, television stations in Nigeria fail to play a constructive role in enhancing public understanding by communicating information on the environment. Consumers of news and society in general do not seem to understand the broad challenges posed, particularly by the impact of indigenous stone crushing, an activity that is fast becoming a thriving business venture in recent years for many people. This study seeks to examine the role and the frequency of coverage of television environmental news reporting in Jos city, particularly in relation to public perception of indigenous stone crushing by women in Jos city. The study is anchored in the Agenda-setting Theory and the Perception Theory, which explains how people make sense of the words and images they get from the media. The paper provides a content analysis of three television stations in Jos city and a focus-group discussion on public perception of environmental reporting in television programming. The study shows that there is an increasing depletion of rock formations, endangering indigenous culture and the aesthetics of Jos city, even while the rocky formations serve as high altitude points for broadcast masts and satellites. There is also an increasing inability to restore the environment in terms of land reclamation and other restorative or protective actions. It recommends that television stations should provide the platform for discussing and understanding issues that are germane to the environment through improved, forthright, and high-quality environmental reporting.