Journalism and Mass Communication, ISSN 2160-6579

October 2011, Vol. 1, No. 1, 57-67

Powerful Force of The Media to Environmental Issues and Its

Contribution to Environmental Engineers

Esra Yel Meral Serarslan

Faculty of Engineering-Architecture,Selcuk University, Communication Faculty,Selcuk University,
Konya/Turkey Konya/Turkey

Environmental Engineers are generally unable to proclaim their projects or their engineering solutions against any
problem to large masses. Environmental Engineering includes two fundamental approaches: preventing the
pollution, and solving the pollution problem after it is arised. Although the first one is preferred, in many
developing countries the general tendency is as the solution of pollution after generation. Neither politicians nor
public are willing to pay before seeing the threat, although they should be. This conflict decelerates the works to
keep the environment and increase the non-success stories and problemmatic situatons. The growing concern in
pollution problems gave rise to intensive coverage of the media as one of their main public responsibilities.
Because the influence of the media has been regarded as a powerful force in society for many years, the coverage of
environmental problems increase the awareness and reduce the resistance against the engineering works. Under
these circumstances this study focuses on the effect of media on public awareness and their participation in the
solution of environmental problems. When the journalists are aware of their role in environmental issues, the
program will be of high quality and accomplishes the objective, therefore supporting the Environmental Engineers
in creating solutions. As a sample, a national Turkish commercial broadcasting company programs were
investigated via contents analysis and discussed.

Keywords: environmental issues, engineering, media, TV

Introduction
The term media refer to a range of diverse mediums from commercial television to public broadcasting,
from radio to the Internet. Media is effective in informing and persuading people to think or do something
(Rowland, 1979). Within one medium, for example TV, there are many ways in which the environment can be
presented beyond the newsroom: from the ruralities to the gardens, i.e. from factual to the fictitious, and vicious,
nature. The power of the media to create, construct or change social attitudes and behaviours is well-known by
not only the media itself but also the public and different workgroups like doctors, engineers as well as
commercials. Through media, large masses can be reached at home, where it serves as catalyst for change in the
whole environment (Heinich, Molenda, & Russell, 1982). The study of media and the environment is long

Esra Yel, assistant professor, Faculty of Engineering-Architecture, Selcuk University, Kampus/Konya, Turkey.
Meral Serarslan, assistant professor, Communication Faculty, Selcuk University, Kampus/Konya, Turkey.
58 POWERFUL FORCE OF THE MEDIA TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

standing within the field of mass communication from a wide range of perspectives. Empirical studies typically
focus on the effect of media on public awareness, attitudes and behavior against any type of environmental issues
(Ji, Webber, & Finlayson, 2009; Sampei & Aoyagi-Usui, 2009; Holbert, Kwak, & Shah, 2003; Davies, 2001;
Sudarmadi, Suzuki, Kawada, Netti, Soemantri, & Tugaswati, 2001; Thapa, 1999; Burgess, Harrison, & Filius,
1998; Gorney, 1992; Greenberg, Sachsman, Sandman, & Salomone, 1989; Rowland, 1979). But none of the
studies focused on the effect of media on success and acceptance of engineering works in environmental issues.
Moreover, studies have not investigated the public awareness and their participation in terms of their contribution
to the engineering studies for the solution of environmental problems. Therefore, this study mentioned the
contribution of mass media coverage of environmental issues to engineering works, especially to Environmental
Engineering. The types and scopes of the programs affect the public awareness, acceptance and involvement in
engineering works. The contribution of the specially prepared television programs to these were investigated and
discussed on NTV Green Screen which is a private national Turkish broadcasting company.
Engineering Perspective of Environmental Issues
The main mission of the engineering is to generate, design and apply the technical solutions to various
problems related to their specialization. The main consideration is to solve the problem with the easiest and the
chapest way. In other words, engineering requires an extensive feasibility study. In general the engineering
works and solutions are seen only by interested parties, not by the whole public. But in case of environmental
issues, the engineering work, whether or not it is seen by the public, should be known, accepted and kept by
everybody. Otherwise the results affect them adversely. For example, the sewerage system design is a
voluminous work starting from the land survey to the on-site construction of the pipeline. At the end of the
work, when the trenches are closed and roads are reconstructed, nobody see the system and nobody
remember/know how much work has been done. In this case, public has nothing to do during the project, but
awareness and attitude is required to keep the system. Otherwise the system will not serve them and what
happens if the sewereage accumulate on the street?
Engineers are unable to proclaim their project or their solutions against any problem to large masses.
Especially in Environmental Engineering, this become a much more complicated difficulty because of the
prejudice about the job and the misunderstanding of the contents of the job. Prejudice arise from the fright that
Environmental Engineers always require treatment of your waste and so cause high costs. This unlucky approach
is mainly due to the lack of knowledge about the real structure of the job. Environmental Engineering does not
always produce costly solutions, but the job can not introduce itself sufficiently. The second problem is about the
misunderstanding of the job. Many parties of the public think the job as if it is related to the physical environment
like trees, flowers, gardens, insects, etc.. Additionally the job is confused with some other jobs like city and urban
planning, landscape architecture, etc.
Actually Environmental Engineering deals with the protection of natural resources, air, water, soil, minerals,
earth; and this protection process includes the analysis, design and application of the technological solutions.
This combination adds another important work to the job: Environmental Management in which environmental
impact assessment take a big part. One of the key steps in environmental impact assessment is the public
participation. Its procedure starts with the announcement throguh newspapers, local televisions, etc.
 POWERFUL FORCE OF THE MEDIA TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 59

Environmental Engineering works include two fundamental engineering approaches: preventing the
pollution before it is generated, and solving the pollution problem after it is arised. Although the first one is
preferred by the engineers, in almost all developing and under-developed countries the general tendency is as the
solution of pollution after generation. Neither politicians nor public tend to pollution prevention unless they have
any idea about the results of that pollution. They are not willing to pay before seeing the threat of the problem.
This conflict makes engineers unable to apply the pollution prevention approach.
Most of the literature that applies ecological modernisation theory concentrates on environment-society
relationships in post-industrial societies in developed countries (Ji et al., 2009). Yet rapid industrialisation has seen
mass environmental movements emerge in many developing countries. However, in developed countries,
environmental movements emerged in relatively open societies. Environmental protection is not as sensitive as
some political issues and its success depends to a large extent on popular support and participation. When the
journalists are aware of their role in environmental issues, the program will be of high quality and accomplishes the
objective, therefore supporting the Environmental Engineers in creating the public participation in solution issues.
Many of the action activities dealt with relatively minor environmental problems. In fact, activities ought to
focus on more serious problems (water pollution, hazardous wastes, population problems). Involving people in
working to solve real environmental problems is clearly a role out-of-school organizations can use to help
improve the environment and to develop environmental action skills. The educational value of these activities
could be improved by including issue analysis activities (Howe & Disinger, 1988).
People have positive attitudes about an issue that they know about. Therefore, the contribution of them to
environmental problem solving procedures is closely related to the awareness. Awareness is first measured, then
programs can be organized to increase its level. A survey is periodically done about the attitudes of European
citizens towards the environment (Eurobarometer Report, March 2008). In that report, the question: When
people talk about the environment, which of the following do you think of first was asked to European citizens
and the percentages of each environmental issue are indicated in Figure 1.
According to the same survey 22% of the european people trust television about environmental issues while
only 8% trust the teachers at university (Eurobarometer Report, 2008). Scientists were also found trustable, but
the Professional engineers could not take part in that list. These values also indicate the unawareness or
insufficieent awareness of public about the technical people. This needs to be increased by the help of extensive
media coverage about their solutions.
The european people were also asked to point out the five main environmental issues they worried about,
and the percentages of environmental issues having place in the first five were indicated in Figure 2
(Eurobarometer Report, 2008). Note that except the natural disasters, the top five was all about man-made
pollution-related issues. Actually, Environmental Engineeris do work extensively about each of them, feasible
solutions are generated and most of these solutions require public awareness, attitudes and participation.
Participation is not expected in design stage. Engineers only demand the contribution in keeping the work during
application stage of the solution.
In another study by Abdul-Wahab (2008) questionnaire indicated that respondents were knowledgeable
about international environmental problems such as climate change, global warming and the depletion of the
ozone layer. Correct answers up to 79% was addressed by the author to TV programs, daily newspapers and the
60 POWERFUL FORCE OF THE MEDIA TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

internet by which the public are often exposed to such issues. When asked to select the three most useful methods
to increase environmental awareness, respondents considered television (24.7%) as the most important method in
the study of Abdul-Wahab (2008). Lozzi and Shepard(1988) indicated that many students report the mass media
(primarily television) as their major source of environmental knowledge. For most adults, mass media is rated as
an even more important source of environmental knowledge. Mass media, particularly television, has made a
significant impact on students attitudes and values.

Percent
0 5 10 15 20 25

Pollution in towns a nd cities 22

Clim a te cha nge 19

Green a nd plea sa nt la ndsca pes 13

Protecting na ture 12

The sta te of the environm ent 12

M a n-m a de disa sters 8

The life qua lity where people live 5

Na tura l disa sters 4

Using up na tura l resources 3

Others 1

No idea 1

Figure 1. The percentages of the environmental issues that European people think of.

60 57
Percent involvement in

50 42 40 39
the first five

40 32 32
26 24 23 23
30
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Figure 2. Percentages of environmental issues having place in the first five.

 POWERFUL FORCE OF THE MEDIA TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 61

These indicate that popular and easily achievable methods involving entertainment always helpful in
gaining the people. Mass media undertake such a big mission, which would be useful in supporting engineering
works if used effectively.
Media Perspective of Environmental Issues
Growing concern in pollution problems gave rise to intensive coverage of the media, but issues of
environmental problems have been expanding in an ever more complex way. Stories about the risks associated
with ongoing environmental public policy debates or particular individual-level environmental behaviors receive
substantially less coverage.
Generally, the medias regard of environmental issues is rather dramatic, and often negative way.
Environmental issues seem to offer their own questionning of technological achievement, and mostly involve
non-success stories for a particular problem. Several studies have found that journalists tend to cover specific,
dramatic environmental events, most often those with negative consequences (Holbert et al., 2003) especially
in television.
Several studies find that coverage of major environmental events often fails to provide adequate scientific
detail to place the risks of the event in their proper context, leading some scholars to conclude that television news
coverage of the environment is often more influenced by the dramatic value of a story than by the actual inherent
risk in a story (Shanahan & McComas, 1997; Gorney, 1992; Greenberg et al., 1989).
The coverage of drammatic events and negative consequences, i.e., those having news value, is certainly
necessary and helpful to pay the attention of the public. But not sufficient especially in terms of contribution of
media to engineering works.

The Effects of Media Coverage of Environmental Issues on Public Opinion,

Attitudes and Behaviors
The influence of the media and mass communication is regarded as a powerful force in society for many
years. Many public opinion surveys in developed countries have shown that mass media play an important role in
shaping public opinion through television, radio and the press, and television in particular was shown to be a
powerful instrument for changing public attitudes (Sampei & Aoyagi-Usui, 2009; Davies, 1999; Burgess, 1990).
Ramsey, Hungerford, & Volk (1992) demonstrated that environmental awareness is the first major step in
preparing people to solve environmental problems. In societal dimensions approach, solutions to environmental
problems were found to lie in the alteration of human attitudes. Public, in general, are aware of the environmental
problems that are directly related to their health (Schultz, 1994).
The study of the relation between environmental attitude and environmentally responsible behavior is very
important (Thapa, 1999). Social settings or lived environments are crucial in shaping attitudes and opinions
(Burgess et al., 1998; Blake, 1999). The medias message is discursively examined in a social setting by the
audience rather than directly assimilated into the public consciousness. If a social norm for responsible
environmental behavior existed, more people might behave responsibly, even if they did not have strong attitudes
about environmental protection (Newhouse, 1990). The source of information is critical and the relationship
between the source and the recipient crucial. Tarrant and Cordell (1997) indicated that although the 1990s have
witnessed high levels of environmentalism in regard to public attitudes, environmentally responsible behaviors
62 POWERFUL FORCE OF THE MEDIA TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

have not increased. Why do people fail to practice environmentally responsible behaviors while expressing
attitudes that are supportive of environmental protection?
Determining what people know about the environment, how they feel about it, and what actions they take
that may help or harm the environment is critical to establishing the sustainability of a community (Sudarmadi et
al., 2001). This point is the common objective of engineers and the media. The reason for public participation
studies in environmental impact assessment procedure is the same.
A research was conducted on the role of publics in environmental policy-making and critical debates about
the appropriate motivations and mechanisms for facilitating greater public participation in environmental actions
(Owens, 2000). A concrete opportunity for this research could be the current preoccupation with mass media
advertising environmental awareness campaigns, which are based on an information-deficit model (Blake,
1999) of public participation in environmental policy. This model sees information provision through adverts as a
means to correct public attitudes and actions towards the environment. The information flow about the
environment in this case is one-way, top-down from experts to publics. People will respond positively to the
information in the adverts and take action to reduce the environmental impact of their everyday lives. Such a
policy response makes a number of assumptions that need to be tested. First, there is the view that people will
respond to facts about the environment and their role in its protection. Second, there is the position that people
fail to act positively towards the environment because they do not have information. Finally, there is the
assumption that the audience will trust the information that is being provided that the presenter and the medium
used to present the information have some authority and legitimacy (Davies, 2001).

NTV-Green Screen
NTV is a national broadcasting company in Turkey. It has been aired over several environmentalist
programs especially durig the summer season for three years. The number, duration and the scope of the
programs has been increasing over the years. The 2010 main theme was food and biodiversity. The programs
were introduced as those who will save the world (www.ntvmsnbc.com), and they are listed in Table 1 with their
names, weekly schedules and durations.
The scopes of the programs listed in Table 1 are explained briefly in this study. In writing them the
explanations taken from the original program text, available on-line (www.ntvmsnbc.com), were combined with
the personal observations of the authors after viewing the program.
Green Journalist: NTV journalists pointed out the environment, foods, species under threat, etc., everyting
related to green. Some of their subjects were about the pollution in Gocek Bay, pollution of Menderes River,
pollution in GAP (the abbreviation of special name of the Great Southeastern Anatolian Development Project),
solid waste mountains near Black Sea, threatened birds etc.
Mr. Green: Prepared by Celal Pir to investigate the environmental problems on-site. This was the second
year of the program. It was a program where people can meet to discuss issues that affect peoples lives and talk
about prevalent issues involving all interested parties: the people living that area, related bureaucrates, investors,
scientists, engineers, NGOs etc. depending on the subject. The most important aspect of the program was the
intellectual follow-up for the fate of previously discussed environmental problems, achieved solutions and
precautions. All were besides this years main topic: foods and biodiversity. Some example subjects were marble
 POWERFUL FORCE OF THE MEDIA TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 63

processing plant wastewaters in a river and eustary, open-pit coal mine and reclamation, low quality foods, illegal
dumping of solid wastes into the sea etc.

Table 1
The Programs by Which the World Will Be Saved (as Introduced by NTV)
Name of the Program Schedule Duration
Green Journalist Monday, Tuesday 16:35 25 min
Mr. Green Monday 21:00 70 min
The Earth Notes Tuesday 21:00 60 min
Time Traveller Saturday 21:00 60 min
Hot and Fresh Saturday, Sunday 12:30 120 min
Tuncel and His Pals Thursday 21:00 90 min
While you are Sleeping Weekdays 19:30 20 min
Nature Alone Wednesday 21:00 60 min
Natural Documentaries Friday 22:00 90-120 min
Ecoists on Work Teaser, once a day 5 min
Green Tips once a day 5 min

The Earth Notes: Prepared by Journalist Miktat Kadioglu and Biologist Rifat Cig. They focused on natural
life of Turkey from a different unusual perspective on-site. Endemic flowers, jungles, rare butterfly species etc.
were investigated in the program, but not in a formal way, the main unknown and original properties were
introduced. For example, there are totally 10,000 floral species in Turkey, 3,000 of which are endemic to Turkey;
the second highest oxygen-producing forest after Alpes is on Kazdaglar, and many similar information was
mentioned in the program. They discussed the meanings of signs, fossils, clues that they found during the trips.
The nature became a big puzzle in the program.
Time Traveller: Ahmet Yesiltepe was prepared the program. This was the second year of it pointing out the
ancient places throughout the Anatolia. He involved the forgotten stories as well as short histories of the places.
Hot and Fresh: The program, whose purpose was giving the recipes of healthy, tasty and environmentalist
foods and meals, was prepared by Defne Koryurek. The main purpose of Defne Koryurek was to call the peoples
attention to forgotten foods, such as real bread, real yoghurt etc. People do not consider the reality and health
of such foods due to inertia caused by the hypermarkets, and resultantly consume many industrial foods. This
program aims to remind people how to prepare fresh foods in city life to improve the life quality.
Tuncel and His Pals : Tuncel Kurtiz is a theater and serial artist. He is also a nature-friend with his own farm,
Zeytinbagi around Kazdaglari (Turkey). He has a large fruit and vegetable gardens established with variety of
organic seeds. Each week he hosted one or two friends and talk about environmental problems, the secrets of the
nature, herbal wealth, organic foods, etc.
While you are Sleeping: Defne Joy Foster, a famous joyful artist in Turkey, prepared some green
questions and ask them to the people on the street in a contest format on weekdays. Several questions ended up
with a grading, which indicated how much environmentalist did the person was. She also point out some
environmental issues and give suggestions and tips during the contest. Some example questions were: What
does recycling mean for you?, How many flights do you have yearly?, Do you shut down the electrical
instruments completely, or stand-by?, etc.
64 POWERFUL FORCE OF THE MEDIA TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Nature Alone: Serdar Kilic indicate the ways of surviving alone in the nature. The program aimed to
investigate whether the nature is dominating the human or vice versa. This was introduced as the exam of the
human with nature. How to find food and drinking water in jungle? If clean water is unavailable, how to treat?
How to light the fire? How to construct shelter? These types of questions were answered visually during the
surviving of Serdar Kilic.
Natural Documentaries: Natural documentaries often present natural habitats relatively undisturbed by
humans and stress the importance of trying to maintain these environments over the long term. Nature is often
revealed for its own beauty in these programs and narrators provide detailed information about how these
landscapes evolved over time (Holbert et al., 2003). NTV Green Screen aired over several famous documentaries
which have Oscars and some other high-prestige rewards. Among these are The Cove, Food Inc., Life etc.
Ecoists on Work: The famous names in Turkey gave messages on food and biodiversity theme in order to
save the world. These were the short programs like thesers. The famous people point out different subjects
shortly in an amuzing way.
Green Tips: This was the short program continued from last year. The tips were given together with their
differences in daily life. The program also indicated that many environmental problems are not solutionless.
Some of the tips were: boil the water in the pot by closing its cover; shut down the television from the power
button, not from remote sensor; check the air pressure of the tires etc.

The Contribution of NTV Green Screen on Engineering Works for Environmental Issues
NTV aired over at least two programs a day and at least one of them was on prime-time during the 2010
summer season. This keeps the viewer on fresh about the environmental issues and increase the awareness and
attitudes. The four of eleven programs, namely Green Journalist, Mr Green, While You are Sleeping, and Green
Tips, were directly related to the engineering works. The scopes of these programs include the subjects that
engineers try to proclaim, and to generate awareness, opinion and behavior. The selected main subjects are also
those having the highest percentages in Figures 1 and 2. Green Journalist and Mr Green were much more related
programs to engineering works. Especially in Mr Green engineers and scientists were hosted and their knowledge
was consulted. This provided the engineers oportunity to make their knowledge and voices heard.
Another four programs, namely The Earth Notes, Tuncel and His Pals, Nature Alone and Ecoists on Work,
were indirectly include the engineering works and engineers messages about environmental issues. The
programmers pointed out some critical environmental issues in an indirect manner and the viewer perceived the
message by finding himself in the real-life examples. This increased the awareness and attitude.
In all the programs, public opinion, awareness, attitudes and behaviors were heeded, as well as the
contribution of the programs to increase these. To achieve this increase, extensive feed-backs were collected. The
type and effect of feed-back will be discussed later.
In this last part, the contribution of NTV Green Screen on engineering works for environmental issues was
investigated on the example program Mr Green, which had the most contribution.
Mr Green focuses on problemmatic issues and demand the contribution of the local public for the
problemmatic works with call us approach. In an example progam he tackled an industry who cause serius
environmental pollution near a small town. Its main pollutants were wastewater and dust. Wastewater was
 POWERFUL FORCE OF THE MEDIA TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 65

discharged to the stream near the town possibly without treatment. The stream water became turbid, colored, fish
population decreased and photosynthetic organisms unable to survive. The dust was caused by the raw material
carried by trucks and in the site continuously moved to the production assembly. It is carried by the wind and
accumulate on the soil and leaves. Thus affecting the agriculture and planting adversely.
If this pollution had been determined by an engineer, what can he/she be do were limited.
(a) If the engineer works for a related ministry or other governmetal organization, he/she can visit the
industry but face with many obstructions and/or threats. He/she can report his observations within the limits of
legislation. The sanctions are to be applied by higher authorities in the organization and they may not be rigid
enough indicating the national economy and profits as reason.
(b) If the engineer is from the local public, his ability is more desparate. He/she is not allowed to approach
close to the site. Two alternatives he/she can do: apply to related governmental organization, which will result in
the above case, or apply to the court, which is costly and non-guarenteed procedure taking possibly a long time.
By the help of programs like Mr Green, this engineer may be the person who called the programmer. This
opportunity has the possibility to reach a solution discussed below.
(c) The engineer, especially if he/she is an environmental engineer, his/her no chance to come together with
the industrial authorities in goodwill and produce the solution.
(d) If the engineer is already working for the industry, he/she point out the hazards and solution alternatives
depending on professional ethics. But the decision-maker is always the invester. Therefore the engineer has
nothing to do unless he/she is the invester himself/herself.
When such a situation is subjected in the program, what happens, how the situation changes? The industry
may gladly accept the programmers with the aim of advertising. There will be no problem as the program involve
the positive aspects of the industry. When the pollution is mentioned, the authorized person of the industry will
first reject and say that pollution is not caused by us. If the programmer advocate that the pollution is observed
by him, the industry will still reject. This is the point where engineers contribute the programmers in
environmental issues. Thats why Mr Green involve the engineers and scientists among the interested parties.
Because the objection of the true and scientific knowledge of technical people by industry will be meaningless
and the industry will have to accept its pollution problem.
At this point the problem in the program was ended via one of the three alternatives:
(1) The industry understands the dead-end and acts with the best defense is attack approach, become
aggressive and argues with the programmers and other participants.
(2) The industry accepts the pollution but defends himself with its compatibility with the legislation, tries to
transfer the responsibility to legal deficiencies. Industries in developing and underdeveloped countries often try
to hide behind this excuse.
(3) The industry accepts the cooperation with the engineers and local organizations. This alternative seem
very utopian under the previous unfavourable story, but it can be possible by such television programs as Mr
Green due to the feed-back. As the program turns back to the previous subjects and show the fate of the
cooperation, the industry will feel under the responsibility of keeping its image. In mediatory approcah the
industry will have good image against the viewer, and the public will not be against it. Mr Green achieved such a
result several times. The programmer followed whether this cooperation was executed or not and involved the
66 POWERFUL FORCE OF THE MEDIA TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

result in the program. Feed-back is known both by the viewer and the industry, therefore forcing the industry to
be truthful in solution. This is another way of contribution to engineering.

Conclusion
The developing world involve numerous environmental problems in all kind of coutries, under-developed,
developing and developed, at different levels and ways. The engineers are generally accepted as cost-causing
problem-solvers especially in under-developed and developing countries. Unless they are being at
decision-maker level, their efforts to solve problems are often useless. On the other hand, engineering ethics
require utilization of technical knowledge for the improvement of social welfare. This makes them in conflict
between the conditions and the profession.
The mass media are known as very influential tools for widening and creating public opinion, awareness,
attitude and behavior through several kinds of programs about environmental issues. Engineering involving and
engineering supporting programs have several benefits and contributions to the engineers and the public.
The first contribution of such programs to have the attention of public, government, industry and all other
interested parties. The effect of the program on each of these are different. The public have the opinion about the
environmental issue and who is doing what about that issue. The government follows the issues from a different
perspective: Environmental problems also indicate the insufficient control mechanism of them on the issues,
which is mostly the case in under-developed and developing countries. The industry understands that the public is
conscious and may respond to call us invitation when faced with the problem. The engineer and other technical
parties know that they have one-more thing to do against environmental problems.
All these help to establish a control mechanism on all types of corporative structure such as public,
government, industry, politics, engineers, etc.. When interpreted sufficiently and correctly, this control
mechanism is advantageous for all the parties and supports the development.
Programs like evaluated in this study created public awareness and opinion which results in attitudes and
behaviors. This public includes all the parties named above. The attitudes does not necessarily be positive, but
always directs the behaviors in the positive way from the engineering point of view. The fear of being subject to
programs such as Green Screen directs the behaviors whether or not the problem creator wants to solve the issue.
The fear of depreciation is very critical for brand industries and they do not want to depreciate. Thats why they
are sensitive for environmental issues and do not hesitate to involve engineering solutions whatever the cost is.
NTV was the first channel has been making such programs for three years. But after observation of the
above positive effects, another channel started to make programs involving environmental issues.

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