Environmental Education and the Role of Media in Environmental Education in Turkey

Environmental education starts within the family with the birth of the individual and continues throughout his primary and higher education. However, environmental education cannot be limited to formal educational institutions since an individual also acquires awareness through his social life and his social relationships. In this context, the media is an important tool in environmental education. It may even be thought of as a kind of school. In Turkey, discussions of the concepts of environment and environmental awareness are a very recent development. Therefore, Turkey's experience in environmental education is fairly new. While primary school provides a semi-planned environmental education, it is obvious that in institutions of higher education environmental education is not adequate at all. Even though there are a great number of organizations engaged in environmental issues, their environmental education activities are inadequate. The purpose of this study is to examine Turkey's environmental problems and how environmental awareness and education is conducted; to address the economic, social and communicative dimensions of environmental education; and to evaluate the media's contribution to environmental education and to environmental awareness.