Scientific information and public opinion. Daily press analysis about ozone hole in the years 1996-1997

One of ENEA's many activities consists in dealing with the analysis of information strategies. In this case the analysis concerns an environmental issue, the ozone hole which, in spite of the consideration given by the media, is not sufficiently highlighted, as well as in the case of climate changes issue. A survey of the coverage of four daily newspapers was realized; the time period covered by the analysis spans form January 1996 to December 1997, 77 articles in total. The newspapers involved are: La Repubblica, Il Corriere della Sera, L'Unita' on a national scale, and Il Resto del Carlino on a regional scale. The number of articles analyzed is divided as follows: 26 for the Repubblica, 24 for the Corriere della Sera, 21 for the Unita', 6 for the Resto del Carlino. The purpose of the work was to detect quality and quantity indicators of the Italian press about the ozone hole issue and possible environmental risks conveyed to the public, using the classical methods of the Content analysis. The analysis, carried out through a questionnaire realized for another research on climate change and daily press and appropriately readapted, consisted of 35 questions pointing out the fundamental characteristics of each article: (i) morphological characteristics; (ii) modalities describing the ozone hole; (iii) communication connotations