Sustainability and media
The role of media in a sustainable society
Finnish media emphasises freedom of speech, reliability and pluralism as the cornerstones of good journalism. Instead of directly campaigning for sustainable development, responsibility and transparency in content production are perceived to be the media's key most important ways of building a sustainable society. Nevertheless, the rise of service journalism has resulted in media increasingly highlighting the perspective of sustainable development with the intention of helping readers make sustainable consumption choices.
For that reason the media has a unique relationship with sustainable development: through readers' choices and actions, journalistic content has indirect economic, social, ecological and cultural effects. Alma Media's newspapers and other media each approach environmental questions their own way. For instance, Kauppalehti approaches them from the perspective of business life, while Iltalehti's approach is more related to everyday choices made by consumers. At the international level, for instance in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the role of journalism in promoting sustainable development has been highlighted as a key element of corporate responsibility in the media sector.
