The role of the media in raising ecological-environmental awareness in Tetova and the surrounding area

Year 2023, Volume: 18 Issue: 3, 114 - 123, 30.09.2023

Asan Idrizi , Arbenita Kadri Nexhbedin Ismaili Idaver Huseini Blerta Idrizi

Abstract

Citizen protests were started in 2013 by NGOs against air pollution which lasted for several years and initially had a small number of participants, but over the years this number began to increase continuously. In this context, the purpose of this paper was to see how traditional and social media have influenced the information and awareness of the population about ecological- environmental problems.
To conduct this paper, a questionnaire was prepared with different questions from the field of environmental problems and the way of getting informed about them. Applying the theoretical methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, and deduction as well as the main survey method, we surveyed casual citizens, high school students, undergraduate students, and experts.
A total of 136 respondents participated in the survey, of which 15 citizens, 32 students, 84 high school students, and 5 environmental experts. Respondents to the questions posed were able to answer according to the answers required: do not agree at all, do not agree, do not know, agree, and completely agree.
The survey showed that the majority of respondents to the questions posed answered with agree. This shows that the media have played a positive role in properly and objectively informing the population about environmental-ecological problems which enabled the increase in the number of protesters and forced the authorities to accept the situation and shut down one of the largest air pollutants in the city.

Keywords

pollution, social media, ecological awareness, air, survey

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