GOODY TWO SHOES: Media Irrelevancy – A Self-Inflicted Wound: Part III
Media Daily News reports on consumer data gathered by Mediamark Research & Intelligence suggesting that “magazines with cover stories about environmental subjects are not read more widely than the average” – and that “the environment might even be a turnoff” for magazine readers “perhaps indicating that American readers are experiencing "issue fatigue," resulting from over-saturation by negative information”:
Of nine big consumer magazine issues with green themes or cover stories in 2006, MRI found that 67% performed worse than average in their six-month readership; in 2007, half of 24 issues with green themes or cover stories did worse than average; and in 2008, 52% of 21 similarly themed issues did worse than average. …
Polls have shown that Americans' concern about the environments tends to come and go, depending on the circumstances. Environmental issues usually take a back seat to economic trouble. In March 2008, Gallup found that 49% said they would choose saving the environment over economic growth, versus 42% saying they would choose the opposite ranking of priorities. … In January 2000, at the end of the dot-com era, 70% of Americans said they believed the environment should take priority over the economy.
Editorial Note: To read previous posts in the “Media Irrelevancy” series, click here and here.
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