Purpose: The purpose of this study is to discuss about the collaboration that exist between the Malaysian media and environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) in environmental communication.
Design/methodology/approach: For the purpose of this study, 24 interviewees from two media organisations (Utusan Malaysia and The Star) and two ENGOs organisations (World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Malaysia Nature Society (MNS)) were interviewed.
Findings: The result of this study discovered that the current level of collaboration between the Malaysian media and ENGOs in environmental communication is still at the medium (coordination) level. This is because both of them have different aspirations, particularly the ENGOs, which are non-profit organisations, while the media need to gain a profit. Majority of the Malaysian media and ENGOs interviewees confirmed that collaboration between them is
easy due to the positive attitudes of both social actors. The collaboration between the media and ENGOs in environmental communication is good and it indicates a symbiotic relationship between these two, as the ENGOs need the media as the channel for delivering environmental information to the public, whereas the media need the ENGOs as the sources for environmental
information.
Research limitations/implications: This study focuses on the collaboration between two stakeholders only namely as the media and ENGOs. It would be interesting for the future research to study on the collaboration level and status between other stakeholders like scientist and government and compare with our findings.
Practical implications: From the practical standpoint, this study have provides a practical guide for the development of environmental communication by the media and the ENGOs in Malaysia especially on the understanding of the pivotal of collaboration between each other in communicating the environmental issues to the public.
Originality/value: Until this day, there are relatively limited and insufficient published research into collaboration between the media and ENGOs in environmental communication is available especially in the context of Malaysia and Asian countries. Thus, this study have offered new theoretical and practical insights into the study of environmental communication in Malaysia.