Reporting about brown bears in Romania. Professional approaches of Romanian journalists

ABSTRACT

Romania is the country with the largest population of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in Europe, and brown bear events are increasingly coming to the attention of journalists as professional media reports interfere with social media amplification, especially in situations likely to have a strong emotional impact. The most common journalistic coverage in the last decade has been of events generated by unwanted interactions and focuses on human-bear conflict, often reporting on tragic episodes resulting in human or animal casualties or material damage caused by brown bears in human communities. Relevant findings of this research show that while all interviewed journalists recognize the importance of education concerning the environment, wildlife, and biodiversity, only two of them have received such formal training. Additionally, Romanian journalists differentiate themselves from environmental activists in terms of their assumed roles, yet they acknowledge the benefits of collaborating with them to promote species conservation.

KEYWORDS:

• brown bears
• covering
• human-bear conflict
• journalism
• reporting
• Romania
• wildlife

Acknowledgments

Project financed by Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu & Hasso Plattner Foundation research grants LBUS-IRG-2020-06. The authors do not have a conflict of interest.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Universitatea ”Lucian Blaga” din Sibiu [LBUS-IRG-2020-06]..