Local Environmental Policy Development and the Media A Media Frame Analysis of Local Newspaper Coverage of Outdoor Wood Boiler Regulation

Given that energy costs continue to rise and the extremely slow global economic growth experienced in the past decade the decentralized residential energy production industry will necessarily continue to grow in importance. Outdoor wood boilers are one emerging technology that seek to provide decentralized energy at the residential level. As other federal, state, and local governments confront this important issue the hope is that they might find this analysis of local media coverage useful for understanding their own situation.;This study uses a theoretical framework provided by a number of sources to analyze local media coverage and public comments on the issue of OWB regulation for the presence of indicators of media bias with particular frames. The presence of frames and the particular actors and frame functions used to convey the views will be analyzed by order of date article by article and compared to the resulting draft ordinances developed by the local regulatory agency.;This case study will test the effect news media coverage has on the formulation of policy in response to the OWB issue. The study will conclude by discussing the argument that although news media coverage can have an impact on the public's understanding of a policy issue it does not necessarily correlate into a change in the ultimate policy solution that is chosen by government officials to address the problem.