If you skim the news, you’re also skimming society’s priorities. What happens when we read all those stories at once?
The big idea
A new study read 25,019 newspaper articles about “nature”
from 13 countries across Asia using machine-learning tools. By treating news as
big data, the authors mapped how the public talks about nature at scale—what
grabs attention, what gets ignored, and what this means for building a more
sustainable future.
Short version: our news diet loves stories where nature
benefits people and where people harm nature—but it pays far less
attention to how people help nature. And the ways we talk about nature
are strongly shaped by culture and place.
Why this matters
If we want policies and everyday choices that actually
stick, we need to know what people already notice and care about. Newspapers
are a public mirror. Reading them in bulk shows:
· Opportunities—topics that already
resonate and can be used to build momentum.
· Gaps—important stories that aren’t
getting through.
· Context—how the same idea plays differently from country to country.
What the researchers did
· Collected 25,019 newspaper articles
mentioning “nature” from 13 Asian countries.
· Used machine learning (text
classification + topic modeling) to surface recurring themes.
· Compared those themes with well-known ways of
thinking about human–nature relations (like ecosystem services, nature’s
contributions to people, ecological footprints, and social-ecological systems).
What they found (in plain English)
1. Hidden relationships are everywhere.
News reveals human–nature connections that barely show up in academic
frameworks. One quirky example: “panda diplomacy.” Stories about pandas
acting as cultural ambassadors point to political and cultural benefits from
nature that are rarely counted in environmental planning.
2. Culture is a powerful gateway.
The most consistently popular topics were cultural ecosystem services—think
nature-based recreation, eco-tourism, art, fashion, and education inspired by
nature. If you want the public’s attention, start where people already find joy
and meaning.
3. Place changes the story.
Similar themes look different across countries. Urban park visits are big in
Singapore; national parks and forests dominate in Vietnam. Fashion inspired by
nature might mean traditional batik in Indonesia or food culture like sushi
in Japan. Strategy has to fit the local social and ecological fabric.
4. The good we do gets the least airtime.
Articles about people helping nature (restoration, conservation, tree
planting) made up only 9% of coverage—far less than stories where nature
helps people (43%) or people harm nature (26%). If we
want action, we need more visible, concrete stories of success and stewardship.
5. No single lens is enough.
Each framework (ecosystem services, nature’s contributions to people,
ecological footprint, social-ecological systems) catches part of the picture.
To understand real-world complexity, we need to use multiple lenses together.
Why this is new
Large-scale, data-driven reading of news lets us
see patterns we’d miss when sampling a few headlines. It also gives
practitioners a way to track changes over time—are restoration stories
growing? Are cultural hooks shifting? Big data won’t replace deep qualitative
insight, but it’s a powerful compass.
How to use these insights (for non-specialists)
· Communicators & journalists: Pair
urgent problem stories with visible solution stories. Show the people,
places, and payoffs of restoration, not just the threats.
· City planners & policymakers: Lead
with cultural ecosystem services—parks, trails, arts, heritage—to build
public support for broader conservation goals.
· Educators & NGOs: Localize! Tie
lessons and campaigns to regional culture and nature so they feel
familiar and actionable.
· Businesses & creators: Sustainable
fashion, design, and tourism already resonate. Make the sustainability benefits
explicit and relatable.
A balanced media diet for the planet
We don’t need to stop reporting crises. We do need to normalize
stewardship—make “people helping nature” as common in headlines as
wildfires and pollution. That narrative shift can unlock funding, votes, and
everyday choices that add up.
The takeaway
Big-data reading of the news offers a clear message: people love nature’s gifts, worry about the damage we cause, and rarely hear about the good we can do. To move from concern to change, tell more stories of care, culture, and place—and look at nature through more than one lens.
Original article: Jaung, W., & Carrasco, L. R.
(2022). A big-data analysis of human-nature relations in newspaper coverage. Geoforum.128,
11-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.11.017