Abstract

SANTIAGO RIVERA, José Armando. The environmental problem, environmental education and the didactic use of mass media. Investigación y Postgrado [online]. 2008, vol.23, n.2, pp.241-270. ISSN 1316-0087.

The goal of this article is to inform about the role mass media play in communicating environmental problems by exposing socio-environmental developments around the world. The fact that print media, radio and television, circulate this information with extraordinary frequency, makes it very useful as a didactic tools given its current and choking value. Considering the need to promote environmental education, it is worrying that references used to present environmental issues are treated as aids to fix images and content and not to encourage reflexive and critical thinking. This situation prompted a revision of the use of newspapers clips in the classroom in order to evaluate their effectiveness in stimulating students’ analysis of environmental problems. As a result of the review a series of guidelines were introduced to improve the critical understanding of environmental issues. The guidelines were design to take maximum advantage of the data available through the media as didactical tools by exploiting the urgency of action in the environmental struggle.

Keywords : environmental problems; environmental education; mass media.