Framing the public policy issue of environmental risk, 1983--1997

This dissertation focused on framing of the public policy issue of environmental risk by sources and in the news media from 1983–1997. The computer-assisted text analysis investigated frames used by the New York Times, USA Today, and National Enquirer to report environmental issues, as defined by competing source groups. This work sought to fill a gap in risk analyses due to under-research of the mass media's role in amplifying or attenuating environmental risk.; Analyses of 15 years' worth of environmental risk news showed a lack of diversity among “risk definers.” Elite government and industry sources served as primary environmental risk framers in mainstream newspapers, far outnumbering non-elite public and interest group sources. Results also suggested that mainstream newspapers enable elites to marginalize lower-order social blocs and that a tabloid for working classes resists dominant ideology by denying the severity of environmental issues and focusing instead on bureaucratic inadequacies. Overall, the three newspapers expressed a limited range of ideas about environmental risk, and repeated similar themes and frames over the 15-year span.