The current global environmental crisis indicates that humanity will live, increasingly, with ecological catastrophes. Different spheres of society must be prepared to cope with these situations. Particularly, media must be ready to contribute to the expansion of public debate and to search for solutions. In these circumstances, the main challenge of mass media is to broach concepts related to environmental sciences, because it is a new and complex knowledge area. To contribute to the subject, this research studied press media coverage of a large fish kill along an estuary of Natal, in Brazil. Thematic content analysis of newspaper reports identified a somewhat precarious treatment of scientific concepts that could substantiate the actual causes of mortality of tons of aquatic fauna, signaling a poor contribution to environmental education and to the scientific understanding of readers.
Scientific dissemination; Environmental journalism; Sustainability; Fish kill; Potengi river
