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Abstract
Newspapers are the primary media that the public uses to learn about environmental issues (Ostman & Parker, 1987), but the depth of environmental reporting in newspapers has not been studied. Computer archives for 27 U.S. daily newspapers were accessed in order to evaluate the levels of coverage for five biological subissues and five ecological concepts in articles on the spotted owl debate. One hundred twenty-eight articles were analyzed. Newspaper reporting was found to be conceptually shallow, with subissues underreported. The author identified a correlation between biologist/reporter contact and increased biological subissue and ecological concepts coverage elsewhere in articles.