COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND PRESS COVERAGE OF HEALTH RISKS
FROM ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION
Robert J. Griffin
Center for Mass Media Research
College of Communication, Journalism, and Performing Arts
Marquette University
Milwaukee, WI 53233
Sharon Dunwoody
Center for Environmental Communication and Education Studies
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
June 1993
The research described in this document has been funded by the United
States Environmental Protection Agency under Cooperative Agreement
CR-817599-01-0.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are grateful to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the
funding that gave us the opportunity to conduct this research, and we
appreciate especially the valuable and warm guidance given to us by Lynn
Luderer and Ann Fisher (formerly of EPA), our project managers.
Christine Gehrmann, graduate research assistant for this project at
the Center for Mass Media Research, did a superb job in her role as
content coder and research colleague. We are also grateful to graduate
student Se-Wen Sun from the University of Wisconsin for her very valuable
help with various parts of this project.
A special note of thanks goes to the people, listed in Appendix B,
who agreed to be interviewed for our Superfund case studies, and to the
anonymous reviewers whose comments were so valuable.
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CONTENTS
Abstract 4
Execut ive Summary 7
Chapter One: General Background 23
Chapter Two: General Content Analysis 44
Chapter Three: Superfund Case Studies 64
Chapter Four: Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)
Case Study 102
Chapter Five: General Conclusions and
Recommendations 126
Appendix A: General Content Analysis
Coding Guide 136
Appendix B: Sources Used for Superfund
Case Studies 176
Appendix C: Toxics Release Inventory Case
Study Content Analysis Coding Guide 179
References 204
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ABSTRACT
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COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND PRESS COVERAGE OF HEALTH RISKS
FROM ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION
Abstract
Background. Members of the public rely on mass media as important
sources of information about health risks from environmental contamination
and other hazards. Our study employs multiple methods to explore the
impact of community structure on the behaviors of journalists and their
media organizations as they construct messages about health risks from en-
vironmental contaminants for their audiences.
Applying the conflict/consensus model of Tichenor, Donohue, and
Olien, we proposed that mass media messages signalling that local agents
are contaminating the local environment and posing health risks is con-
flict-generating information and, therefore, is controlled in the interest
of community stability. Such control would be expected to vary by commu-
nity structure, specifically structural diversity ("pluralism," usually
associated with size) and economic reliance of the community on manufac-
turing.
Method. We conducted a three-part study, including a content
analysis of nine months of coverage that 19 newspapers gave to environ-
mental contamination, historical case studies of media coverage of three
Superfund sites in Wisconsin, and a content analysis of how hundreds of
daily newspapers in the Midwest covered an environmental group's 1991 news
release concerning toxic releases from industries in the region, based on
information from the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).
Results. Our results indeed indicated that community structure
affects local risk communication. While results were at times mixed, in
general our study showed that media in less pluralistic (smaller) communi-
ties will tend not to carry much information about health risks stemming
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from manufacturers and other local sources of environmental contamip.af-'
and will tend to stress solutions to local contamination rather than
related problems. Papers in communities highly reliant on manufacturing
may be similarly reluctant to publish information about health risks from
manufacturers.
Our research also revealed some other community structural, news or-
ganizational, and news occupational forces that appear to affect risk com-
munication in important ways, and that point to the need for some further
research. These findings include the apparentveffects of press releases
on local news staff mobilization to gather information about toxic
releases from industry, the apparent willingness of editors in less
pluralistic communities to publish broader stories about environmental
health risks not overtly linked to local sources of pollution, and the
ways in which political and scientific sources drive news coverage of
health risks in Superfund site communities.
Implications. These results prompt some suggestions for risk commu-
nication practitioners. In general, just as individuals vary greatly in
their need for specific types of risk information, so may communities --
and the media organizations in them -- require different communication
strategies. Since most of the mass media in the United States are small
city dailies or broadcast stations, or community weekly newspapers, public
information specialists need to deal carefully and knowledgeably with
community constraints on mass communication about local health risks from
environmental contaminants.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND PRESS COVERAGE uF HEALTH RISKS
FROM ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION
Executive Summary
Members of the public rely on mass media as important sources of in-
formation about health risks. We still have a lot to learn, however,
about the content of mass media risk messages, about what audiences do
with that information, and about the forces that affect the ways media
construct the messages.
In this study, we explore the impact of community structure on the
behaviors of journalists and their media organizations as they fashion
stories about risks posed by environmental contamination. We focus on
community structure for two reasons: (1) Researchers have found it to be
a powerful predictor of media coverage of environmental issues, and (2)
despite its apparent influence, many risk communication campaigns fail to
take community structure into account.
Talking about community structure, or pluralism, is a way of talki,..,
about the distribution of power in a community. At one end of the struc-
ture continuum are homogeneous communities, settings where individuals are
a lot like one another and power is shared by a small number of people or
interest groups. At the other end of the continuum are pluralistic commu-
nities, whose residents are diverse and where many power bases and inter-
est groups compete for influence. Not surprisingly, community size is a
good predictor of level of pluralism. For many of us, the best illustra-
tions of homogeneous communities are America's small towns and hamlets,
while large, contentious cities anchor the other end.
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>..- = •: Takes community pluralism interesting to scholars of the :rass
media is that communities with differing distributions of power seem co
influence their mass media to play different roles as information chan-
nels. This linkage was first articulated by a research team at the
University of Minnesota: Phillip Tichenor, Clarice Olien and George
Donohue.
The three scholars argue that the mass media in a community are
important tools for managing conflict within that community but that the
distribution of power in the community determines how the tools get used.
A quick look at the two types of communities anchoring the ends of the
pluralism continuum is illustrative:
o In structurally homogeneous communities, people in power know each
other and tend to work out conflicts interpersonally, in those stere-
otypical "smoke-filled rooms" down at the Moose Lodge. The role of
the mass media in these communities is one of building consensus for
those decisions, of legitimizing the power structure. The local
newspaper, then, functions as a community booster.
o On the other hand, structurally pluralistic communities contain so
many competing power bases that conflict cannot be worked out inter-
personally. Intead, it spills into the mass media. Newspapers in
these heterogeneous communities become important communication links,
both for the general public and for the powerful, who use the mass
media to monitor the perspectives of competing interest groups.
Media in these communities are sometimes identified as playing a
•watchdog" role because reflecting opposing positions is such an
important part of their job.
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The bottom line here is that community pluralism ultimately affects
the configuration of information available to citizens. In this study-
sough- to see, .how those differing configurations would influence the
availability and nature of of risk information, particularly information
about contamination by local companies that looms as a health risk. We
would anticipate differences in handling of these kinds of risk stories
for a number of reasons. One is that the presence of a health risk sets
the stage for conflict, and Tichenor, Donohue and Olien have found ample
evidence that community structure influences reporting of conflictive in-
formation. Another reason is that local companies are often part of the
power structure of communities. In such cases, stories accusing them of
putting neighbors at risk would be sensitive indeed.
Specifically, we expected to find that newspapers in less pluralistic
communities would downplay the risks posed by local companies, as such in-
formation would be potentially threatening to the social structure of t
community. Conversely, we expected to find that newspapers in more plur-
alistic communities would focus more directly on the risks as problems to
residents of the area.
To explore differences in newspaper treatment of environmental risks,
we looked for variation in two content dimensions: media •frames' and a
related concept that we termed a "risk linkage."
Frames are ways of interpreting information that journalists learn to
apply, subconsciously and reflexively, to news accounts. At their sim-
plest, frames are "what the story is about." They are crucial to journal-
istic work because reporters must quickly 'see' news in the information
around them. But frames provide an interpretive scaffolding not only for
story writers but also for story readers. We all use the first few
paragraphs of a newspaper story to determine that story's main point and
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cc decide if we wish to keep reading.
Ir. the studies discussed here, we paid special attention to how cor-
munity pluralism affected newspapers' decisions to frame environmental
risks as problems or as issues being solved. We suspected that newspapers
in mere pluralistic communities would frame these risks predominantly as
problems while newspapers in more homogeneous settings would emphasize,
instead, the ways in which the local power structures were handling the
problems.
A 'risk linkage" is information that makes an explicit connection
between an environmental contaminant and a human health problem, no matter
how big or small that problem may be. Such linkages may be sensitive ones
in less pluralistic communities where companies are often major power
brokers but, conversely, may be common media fare in a more pluralistic
community where local companies are only one among many competing interest
groups. Thus, we expected to find that newspapers in more pluralistic
settings would provide more risk linkages than newspapers in less plural-
istic ones.
Guided by research on community structure and our educated guesses
about how such structures would influence media coverage of environmental
risks, we conducted three studies of press coverage of health risks from
environmental contaminants. They are:
o A general content analysis of 19 newspapers, primarily in Wisconsin,
examining reporters' use of framing and other presentation strategies
in stories about environmental contamination from industries and
other local sources of pollution;
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o A qualitative, case study exploration of newspaper coverage of thr£=
Superfund sites in Wisconsin, using interviews and content analya
and
o A content analysis of press coverage of a report issued by a New
York-based environmental group about toxic pollution in the Midwest,
based on the Toxics Release Inventory. Because our research has
implications for risk communication public information programs, we
cap off our analyses with this case study.
After presenting the results of our analyses, we will explore their
implications for risk communication practitioners.
General Content Analysis
We examined nine months of coverage by 19 newspapers in 16 communi-
ties, mostly in Wisconsin. (We included Chicago so that we could get as
much variation in community pluralism as possible.) We found that commr
ty pluralism indeed affects the ways that local newspapers depict env'
mental contamination—especially that from industries and other sources of
local contamination—in their cities and towns:
o Newspapers in larger, heterogeneous (i.e., more pluralistic) communi-
ties were more likely to link local contaminators to possible health
threats than were papers in smaller, homogeneous (i.e., less plural-
istic) places;
o Papers in these larger communities were more likely than their coun-
terparts in smaller communities to frame (i.e., strongly depict) con-
tamination from local sources as a problem;
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o Papers in smaller communities were more likely than papers ir. larger
comir.unicies to frame contamination from local sources in the cor.tex-
of the solution to the problem.
There are also variations in the ways that news media in these dif-
ferent types of communities made use of what we termed "generic" stories
about contamination. Generic stories did not specifically state whether
or not the kind of contamination referred to in the story (for example,
from power plants, industries, and so forth) was to be found in the local
community. Instead, generic stories provided a broad-based, usually
regional or national look at contamination from these and other sources,
which in effect could be "everywhere or anywhere." While we still have
some uncertainty about the roles that generic stories play in news
accounts in bigger versus smaller communities, our study indicated that:
o In larger, more heterogeneous communities, many generic stories seem
to be sources of additional information about solutions to environ-
mental contamination problems tried elsewhere.
o In smaller, more homogeneous communities, generic stories tend to
stress health risks linked to the contamination referred to in the
story, and tend to be feature-type stories, that is, stories not
based on specific recent happenings but the kind that usually provide
more general information.
It is possible that editors in smaller communities might use such
generic stories to convey locally relevant health risk information in a
way that avoids pointing fingers at local sources of contamination, but
that relies on the ability of local readers to make the necessary
inferences. Both of these possibilities signal the need for further
research. However, it is clear that editors and reporters in smaller com-
munities treat very carefully information about health risks and other
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prcCierrs stemmng from contaminators in the comnvu..icy. The ioca-ior. cf
the contamination referred to in the story--whether it be local, in sc
other community, or "generic"--plays a relatively big role in the news
coverage decisions of small community journalists, as compared to their
large city counterparts.
This analysis provides a baseline suggesting that the case studies to
follow provide representative results.
Superfund Case Studies
If community pluralism is indeed influencing reporters' coverage of
environmental risks to health, then one should see that influence across
an array of studies and methodologies. The purpose of these case studies
was to test for the effect of community structure through a more qualitat-
ive process. Specifically, we explored factors influencing newspaper
coverage of three Superfund sites in Wisconsin.
We used three criteria to select the'sites: (1) A site must be
situated near communities of different sizes to create variance in commu-
nity structure, our primary independent variable; (2) A site must have
attracted news coverage throughout its lifespan; and (3) A site must still
be in the process of clean up. Once we had selected a site, we collected
and qualitatively analyzed newspaper coverage from at least'two newspapers
serving at least two communities-near the site. We also interviewed
editors, reporters, and state and federal agency sources involved with the
site.
Community structure indeed seemed to be reflected in the newspaper
coverage of each Superfund site:
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o '.'ev-'spapers in smaller, mere homogeneous communities dcwr. played
coverage of the sites, attending to them only when public hearings
and other "news" events demanded attention. Additionally, newspapers
in these less pluralistic settings were far more likely to reflect or.
the Superfund sites as problems being solved by local officials.
o Newspapers in smaller, more homogeneous communities also were loathe
to portray the local contaminator as a villain; indeed, the most
frequent strategy was to ignore the role of the local company alto-
gether. Editors of newspapers in these more homogeneous settings
frequently referred to their role as one of "featuring" the communi-
ty, not critiquing it.
o Newspapers in larger, more heterogeneous settings, on the other hand,
were much more likely to cover these sites extensively and critical-
ly. They were more likely to frame the contamination as a problem,
both in terms of threatening the health of community residents and in
terms of devising adequate clean-up procedures, and were more likely
to identify the contaminator as a community villain.
Just as interesting, however, was another community-based finding.
Community structure seemed to influence not only individual story frames
but also the larger theme within which a Superfund site was interpreted.
Over the course of years of stories, each Superfund site in this case
study was given meaning via a very specific, community-based framework
that played a major role in what that story was "about" for community
members. These community-based frameworks had nothing to do with the
notion of risk to health but, instead, were forged by interactions and
processes unique to the power structure in that community.
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For example, a Superfund site in an unincorporated town adjacent <-^
two larger communities quickly became defined as a territorial problert
Historically** the two larger communities competed to annex land from the
unincorporated town, and that territorial dimension quickly took over as
the dominant meaning of coverage. The long-term theme of the Superfund
coverage of this site focused not on the risks to health of individuals
living near the site but, instead, on the struggle of the unincorporated
town to maintain a sense of identity.
Similarly, PCB-laden sediments in a river and harbor near Sheboygan
were transformed from a story about the risks of eating contaminated fish
to a story about the economic problems posed by the contamination. She-
boygan, on the shore of Lake Michigan, relies heavily on sport and
commercial fishing for its economic base. The Superfund site there was
immediately given meaning as an economic—not a health risk—story.
Thus, these three Superfund case studies not only supported the
argument that community structure influences the selection and framing of
information about local environmental contamination but also introduced an
unexpected community influence: the ability of the community power struc-
ture to place its own meaning framework on the issue. Superfund sites
take years to resolve and, partly because of the Superfund process itself,
remain 'news' for much of that time. Over such lengths of time, coverage
of each Superfund site in this study was transformed into a kind of commu-
nity saga, a morality play unique to the community itself.
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Toxics Release Inventory Case Study
This case study examined how community pluralism and the extent to
wr.ich communities rely on manufacturing for jobs affected the way tnat 372
midwescern daily newspapers covered a report, issued by a New York-based
environmental group, about high levels of industrial toxic releases in the
Midwest. The group, Inform, Inc., included in the report some data on the
amount of toxic releases for every county in the seven-state region, based
on their examination of the Toxics Release Inventory. News reporters
could use these data to "localize" the story, that is, apply the report's
findings about toxic releases to their own counties.
Inform, Inc., mounted an information campaign to announce publication
of the report, entitled Toxic Clusters: Patterns of Pollution in the
Midwest. So, we also examined the effects of their press kit and related
information activities on press coverage of Toxic Clusters, in the context
of community pluralism and reliance on manufacturing. Even though Inform,
inc., sent their press kit to only some of the newspapers in our analysis,
all of the newspapers we studied had access to a wire service story based
on Toxic Clusters.
We found that important aspects of a journalist's decisions --
whether to publish a story about Toxic Clusters in the local newspaper,
and if so, what to aspects of the story to stress in the headline -- were
affected by how much the community relied on manufacturing and, to some
extent, by community pluralism. In particular:
o When we divided communities into low, medium, and high levels of
reliance on manufacturing, we found that newspapers in communities
with the mid-level of manufacturing reliance were the most likely to
publish a story about Toxic Clusters. This result suggests that
editors in communities without much manufacturing might have
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considered the story to be locally irrelevant; editors in
that are very dependent on manufacturing might have considered c
story co be, in some way, too sensitive to run locally. This patcerr.
was most pronounced among communities that are highest in pluralism.
o Local sensitivity to the report also seemed to be reflected in the
ways that headlines were composed by those newspapers that did run a
Toxic Clusters story:
» The more the community relies on manufacturing, the less likely
the local paper's headline for the story spotlighted a health
risk.
» Newspapers in communities that are higher in pluralism but not
very reliant on manufacturing were the most likely to indicate in
their headlines the local relevance of the story.
Also useful in our study was Oscar Candy's idea that agencies and
other news sources who 'subsidize" the news media by disseminating to
information that they can use quickly and inexpensively increase the
likelihood that the media will use the information. In so doing, the
media might offer to audiences the agency's perspective on the news.
Among our findings were the following:
o Papers that were sent the press kit were more likely to publish an
item about the report, either from a wire service or as produced by
one of their own reporters. None of the papers we studied used the
Inform, inc., news release verbatim.
o A major effect of the press kit was to make it easier for editors to
assign staffers to cover the story, since the press kit contained
additional information about the report that was easy for reporters
to gather and use. Press conferences, if nearby, had similar
effects. Once local staff members were assigned to cover the story.
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t.-.ey tended to include in their articles informscior. abcjt ir.e Iccal
levels of toxic releases.
o Newspapers in communities experiencing problems with high overall
levels of toxic industrial pollution, or that have 'dirtier" local
industries, felt more compelled to have one of their own staffers
cover the Toxic Clusters story. Therfore, local conditions seem to
have prompted editors to entrust the story to one of their own
reporters.
Overall, our results suggest that information about health risks and
related problems stemming from local contaminators is very sensitive in-
formation and is treated carefully by local media. In particular, daily
newspaper use of information subsidies seems to be affected by a
cost-benefit tradeoff in which editors take into account the cost of
gathering the information as well the effects on the community of publish-
ing it.
Recommendations
Designers of risk communication programs should, in effect, consider
the information needs of two 'audiences': (1) selected target groups
(segmented publics) and (2) the media organizations serving those publics.
In neither case does one message fit all. Our research indicates that:
o Public information programs about risk should take into account com-
munity structure, especially community pluralism. As a practical
matter, the size of a community's population is a pretty good
indicator of pluralism.
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o Ccrn.~up.icy structure car. have an impact on the interpretive strata^-
that a newspaper uses to explain a risk and on the types of info-
tion ab»wt the risk that the paper includes in news accounts:
» In small communities, newspapers will be interested in maintaining
an image of the community as a good place where problems are read-
ily resolved and where people get along with one another. Thus,
they will usually welcome information couched in terms of how
local environmental problems are being solved. They will probably
be less welcoming of information that spotlights the notion that
members of the community are at risk from local sources of contam-
ination. It will be relatively hard to place "this is a local
problem" information in such outlets.
» In larger communities, newspapers will be more open to interpret-
ing an environmental hazard as a local problem and to presenting
information about risks from local sources of contamination.
» Even in larger communities, however, local media might find some
contamination issues to be sensitive. For example, newspapers
seem to be particularly careful about how they present information
about problems of toxicity from industry if the community is
highly reliant on local manufacturing.
o The bottom line is that you might need to "tell the story" different-
ly depending on the kind of community, and perhaps work with local
news media in different ways. Although they are indicated by the
results of our study, more research is needed to demonstrate the
effectiveness of the following strategies:
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» Yo- rr,ay need to embed the same information (e.g. . explar.aiicr. of =
risk, of the cleanup process) in different contexts when working
with the news media in different communities, placing the informa-
tion in the context of a problem if the news medium is in a larger
community or stressing what is being done to solve the problem if
the news medium is in a smaller community.
» News media in smaller communities appear to be willing to publish
broader, feature-type "generic" stories about health risks from
environmental contaminants as long as they are not directly linked
to local sources of pollution. For news media in smaller communi-
ties, a contact phone number or address for the public might be
included.
» News media in larger communities seem to be interested in generic
stories about solutions to contamination problems that are being
tried elsewhere.
» When contamination issues are locally sensitive, news media will
probably prefer that their own staff members cover and craft as
much of the story as possible. Papers in larger communities tend
to have larger staffs to devote to such customized reporting.
Under these circumstances, your best strategy might be to supply
fact sheets and otherwise make it as easy as possible for local
reporters to write their own stories.
Other Factors for Consideration. Our research also generates some
other suggestions for planners of risk communication programs:
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o In long-playing stories about contamination, risk informa-ior. seerr.3
to be regarded by journalists as more appropriate in the earlier
stages of publicity.
o Reporters seem to be much more likely to include risk information if
it is given to them by a source than to take the initiative to seek
risk information from a source to fill out a story or to update it
for audiences.
o From a research standpoint, there is considerable value in approach-
ing a risk communication problem by using a variety of research
methods, and by taking into account (that is, controlling for) the
ecosystem of forces that can affect risk communication processes.
Conclusion
Our research has demonstrated the effects of community pluralism on
mass mediated risk coverage, and the need for public information progr^
concerning environmental risk to tailor their messages to the roles of
media in communities that vary in pluralism. Since most of the mass media
in the United States are small city dailies or broadcast stations, or com-
munity weekly newspapers, public information specialists will need to deal
commonly with the kinds of community constraints on mass communication
about local health risks that we explored in these studies. .
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CHAPTER ONE:
GENERAL BACKGROUND
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Introduction
Among the many channels that can convey risk information to the
public, the «ass media (e.g., newspapers, television) have the greatest
potential to inform the greatest number. While we know that individuals
say they rely on mass media as important sources of risk information
(Freimuth, Edgar and Hammond, 1987; Singer and Endreny, 1987), we still
have much to learn about what is in those messages and what audiences do
with them. Research on both dimensions flourishes; the findings reported
here deal directly with what is in messages. Specifically, this study
examines the extent to which differences in the social structure of
various communities -- in particular what is termed community "pluralism"
(the heterogeneity or diversity of groups in the community, and accompany-
ing differences in the distribution of power and in the roles that mass
media play) -- drives the ways in which journalists deal with local envi-
ronmental contamination as news.
Products and Process. Studies of media coverage of environmental
risks have looked more intensively at the products -- risk stories -- than
at the process of story construction. This means that most studies at-
tempt to explain how coverage comes about by inference rather than by
direct observation and measurement.
Analyses of media coverage to date have yielded two large patterns of
findings. One is that media coverage of risks does not mirror "reality,"
as defined by the researcher. For example, Greenberg, Sachsman, Sandman
and Salomone (1989) found that the television networks in the United
States focused disproportionately on sudden, violent environmental -risks
such as large chemical spills or airplane crashes. These disasters make
compelling TV footage but, cautioned the researchers, cause fewer deaths
than other, more chronic environmental risks such as smoking and asbestos
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exposure. In a slightly different vein, Singer examined the goocr.ess of
fit between media accounts of a variety of hazards and the original scier.-
tific reports and found the news stories made "a substantial number of
errors" (Singer, 1990, p. 105). Both of these studies compared media
stories to a particular reality defined operationally by the researchers,
and found the stories wanting. Other studies have reached a similar con-
clusion (see, for example, Combs and Slovic, 1979; Chemical Risks: Fears,
Facts, and the Media, 1985) .
A second pattern of findings from this body of research is that risk
stories contain very little risk information, as defined by science. For
example, Sandman, Sachsman, Greenberg and Gochfeld, in a study of newspa-
per coverage of environmental risks, reported finding scant "explicit risk
information in articles that are ostensibly about environmental risk"
(Sandman et al, 1987, p. 52). In fact, they found that more than
two-thirds of the paragraphs dealt with other dimensions of environmental
issues, such as assigning blame or calculating the cost of the environ-
mental damage. Of the third of the paragraphs that did discuss risk, only
17.4% addressed the basic risk issue: "How dangerous is this substance or
situation?" (p. 11)
Singer and Endreny (1987) made similar observations in their study of
hazards coverage in 15 media outlets. For example, they reported that of
624 stories published or aired in these outlets in 1984, only 5% contained
any information about the annual mortality associated with the particular
hazard being addressed. News reporting about hazards, Singer and Endreny
(1993) have concluded, is driven by catastrophes and other events, and
generally ignores risk-benefit tradeoffs, ethical and economic issues, and
other longer-term considerations that would help people make rational de-
cisions about risks.
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33-=
- — a —
Mosc of the extant studies of media coverage of environmental
are descriptive. The authors speculate about why the patterns found
their stone exist, but they rarely bring data to bear on that very im-
portant issue. In our study we begin to alleviate this problem by
gathering data to help us explore the impact of one type of predictor,
community structure, on the behaviors of journalists and their media or-
ganizations as they try to "make sense" of environmental risk information.
Macroscope. Why do we place all our eggs in this rather macro-level
basket? We offer two responses.[1.1]
For one, community structure has been shown to have an important im-
pact on media coverage of environmental and other issues. Tichenor,
Donohue and Olien, the founders of this line of study within mass communi-
cation, have documented the role that community structure played in the
behaviors of mass media in regard to conflict over local issues in smaller
and larger communities.
More recently, Dunwoody and Rossow examined the impact of community
structure on newspaper coverage of a high-level nuclear waste repository
controversy in Wisconsin (Dunwoody and Rossow, 1989; Rossow and Dunwoody,
1991) . Among their findings were that newspapers in more heterogeneous
communities were far more likely to write stories reflecting conflicting
points of view about the issue and were more likely to go beyond events to
[1.1] Social and behavioral scientists sometimes refer to the 'level of
analysis' of their studies. Micro-level studies are usually
psychologically based and often concentrate on what influences the
behaviors or attitudes of individuals. A laboratory study of how
people respond to different risk messages, for example, would
usually be considered a study conducted at the micro or 'individual'
level. Macro-level studies are usually based in sociology and
examinine institutions, communities, and other large social systems
to decipher the workings of broad social forces, such as, for
example, the power relationships among groups. A study of the
influence of the manufacturing base of different communities on
patterns of news media coverage of health risks posed by local.
industries would usually be considered a macro-level study.
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wri.e issue-crisr.ceci pieces. Newspapers in more homogeneous cor~.jr.ities,
or. the otner hand, ofcen covered the issue perfunctorily or avoided it
altogether, even though the proposed repository would be a close neighbor.
A second reason to concentrate on community social structure as a
predictor of media coverage of environment risks is that many risk commu-
nication programs do not take such macro-level variables into account.
Risk managers often seem to assume that "one message fits all" and ap-
proach each hazard, each community, in similar ways. As Grunig (1989)
notes, however, public information efforts, if they are to succeed, must
be directed to carefully selected "segments" of the audience, and must
consider the appropriate media and messages based on the social and psy-
chological characteristics that distinguish these particular audiences.
Important to consider, he says, are the structures of different communi-
ties in which audiences reside -- especially the pluralism of communities,
as depicted by Tichenor, Donohue and Olien (1980) -- and the varying roles
of the media in those communities. "Few communication campaigns have
segmented communities this way," Grunig (1989) states, "although communi-
cation planners should do so" (p. 218).
In short, just as individuals may vary greatly in their need for spe-
cific types of risk information, so may communities -- and the media or-
ganizations in them — require different communication strategies. Dis-
seminating information about a Superfund site to two neighboring communi-
ties, for example, may require the sophisticated risk communicator to fine
tune the information to cope with two very different social contexts.
This study indicates that those structures are important predictors of the
ways in which community newspapers -- and perhaps the individuals in those
communities -- ""make sense" of the risks at hand.
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Community Structure and Media Roles
Scholars such as Tichenor, Donohue and Olien (1980) have used th
concepc of community pluralism to represent community structure, in par-
ticular the distribution of power in a community, based on indicators of
the diversity of the community.
Community Pluralism. Usually/ but not always, pluralism is associat-
ed with the size of the community, with large, metropolitan areas con-
sidered highly pluralistic. But much more is involved tihan population
size.
As noted by Olien, .Donohue and Tichenor (1968), communities that are
more pluralistic have a more diversified population, a greater number and
variety of interest groups, and more specialization. Tichenor, Donohue
and Olien (1980) further note that smaller (less pluralistic) communities
tend to work in an atmosphere of consensus, and decision-making is common-
ly based on precedent and tradition. Larger (more pluralistic) commuil
ties tend to work in an atmosphere of greater conflict, and decision-mak-
ers are forced to take into account the interests of the various groups
that are often at odds with one another.
Roles of Mass Media. News media are an integral part of the communi-
ty and tend to reflect the concerns of the power structure of the communi-
ty (Tichenor e£ al., 1980), usually serving as reinforcers of established
authority, powerful interests, and mainstream values (Olien, Tichenor and
Donohue, 1989). Conflicts, of course, occur in smaller communities as
well as in larger ones. But the role of the mass media is different in
smaller communities, owing primarily to differences in the role of commu-
nication in managing conflicts.
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I.-, less pluralistic communities, as Olien et al. (1953) note, ccrr--
nity leaders and interest groups tend to work out conflicts through infor-
mal means and interpersonal channels of communication. Local news media
in these less pluralistic communities are seen as legitimizers of pro-
jects, builders of consensus, and instruments for tension management in
the community, and in general as means of putting the town's best foot
forward. Local news media would be expected to avoid, if possible, much
reporting of conflict within the community. Reporting that would point
fingers at individual or institutional members of the community, dig up
local wrongdoing, or potentially raise sensitive issues would not be con-
sistent with this role. "A newspaper in a one-industry town is unlikely
to report that industry in a critical way," Tichenor e_£ al. (1980,
p. 220) observe. "It will reflect community consensus about that industry
through reporting socially noncontroversial aspects of that industry and
generally avoiding reports that would question it."
In larger (more pluralistic) communities it is very difficult for
community leaders and interest groups to communicate about, and settle.
conflicts through interpersonal channels. Conflict is a routine part of
public life in more pluralistic communities, and more communication
activity must take place at the formal and public level (e.g., public
hearings and events staged by interest groups to get media attention), re-
sulting in more conflict reporting by the mass media (Olien e£ al., 1968,
1989; Donohue, Olien and Tichenor, 1985b). "Such emphasis on conflict is
not necessarily disruptive," Olien et al. (1978, p. 446) explain, "but is
part of the process of resolving conflicts and managing them at tolerable
levels." Community leaders in more pluralistic communities are more likely
to perceive the local press as taking the initiative in reporting conflict
(Donohue, Olien, and Tichenor, 1985a), and in general the news media in
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mere pluralistic communities tend to perform more of a "feedback" rcl~~'~~n
drawing attention to local problems (Tichenor et_ al., 1980) .
These news coverage patterns are further reinforced by some organiza-
tional and economic factors that separate the large city daily newspaper
from its smaller community daily or weekly counterpart. Small town jour-
nalists may find it difficult to separate professional from social rela-
tionships in the community, while the urban journalist is in a setting
that more readily allows this separation (Tichenor e£ al., 1980). In
addition, as Donohue, Olien, and Tichenor (1989) note, smaller newspapers
have smaller staffs with less specialization. Editors of smaller weeklies
in particular must play multiple roles on their papers, which often
include reporting, management, and advertising. Their acute concern about
economic survival means that, as part of their daily routines, they are
more concerned about advertising, circulation and profits than the editors
of large dailies who specialize in news while others on the newspapef
organizational staff make decisions about advertising, circulation, and
profit. Only a portion of the small town editor's time is devoted to
news.
Ownership of the local paper by a corporate chain decreases the edit-
or's profit concerns, but increases the editor's sensitivity to covering
business news (Olien et al., 1988). Chain ownership also seems to de-
crease the likelihood that the paper will report local conflict (Donohue
e£ a_l., 1985b) . Despite their greater concerns about economic survival,
however, the smaller community editors generally agree with editors in
larger communities that information dissemination has a higher profession-
al value than their newspaper's economic concerns (Donohue et al., 1989).
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Pluralism and Use of Scientific Information. As a side effec. cf
pl-ralisr,, rneiriers of che public in larger communities are more supportive
of the dissemination of expert scientific information, and of its use in
public decision-making, than are members of the public in smaller communi-
ties, at least in regard to local conflicts concerning environmental haz-
ards from industry. Residents of smaller communities favor the use of
informal means to solve local problems and value local autonomy, both of
which can be threatened by using formal scientific knowledge that origin-
ates from agencies outside the local social structure. Overall, however,
local community leaders tend to be relatively supportive of such dissemin-
ation and use of expert scientific information (Tichenor et al., 1980).
Information Configuration
As Olien e_t al. (1978) observe, community pluralism ultimately af-
fects the configuration of information available to average citizens in
different communities. In our study, we propose that community structure,
in particular community pluralism, affects press coverage of risks from
environmental contaminants, such that the configuration of information
about those risks as presented in the press differs from community to com-
munity. We intend to examine information configuration especially in
terms of press "framing" of stories about environmental contamination and
associated risks, and in terms of a related concept we call a 'risk link-
age. '
Frames. To organize news accounts for audiences, news media regular-
ly develop consistent patterns of selection and emphasis of information
about a given topic that indicate what the story is about. While journal-
ists do not necessarily develop and use these "frames' consciously (Hack-
ett, 1984), they are used, according to Gamson (1989), as organizing ideas
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"fcr making sense of relevant events and suggesting what is at issue." -
the process, Gamson says, some information is emphasized and some excl
ed.
These frames are essential for journalistic work because reporters
and editors must make speedy decisions about what is worth their atten-
tion. A journalist with 30 minutes to write a story does not spend much
time contemplating "what the story is about." That particular decision is
made in seconds, and the reporter then uses the bulk of that 30 minutes to
select and order information in ways that are consonant with that deci-
sion .
Journalists commonly cover news by covering events that occur.
Therefore, key characteristics of the event could trigger framing deci-
sions, especially when the reporter's time is tight. For example, when a
nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island (TMI) sprang a leak in 1979, many
media organizations defined the event initially as "an accident" and s
general reporters -- individuals adept at covering fast-breaking news --
to the scene. It was not until many of these journalists began
floundering in a sea of technical terms and terrifying images -- for
example, the ominous hydrogen bubble that was hypothesized to be growing
inside the damaged reactor — that these organizations redefined the event
and sent in their science reporters. Rubin, who headed a subsequent
investigation of media coverage of TMI, reported that journalists' infor-
mation-gathering efforts were so accident-oriented during the crisis that
"science writers had little opportunity to ask sophisticated questions of
knowledgeable sources" (Rubin, 1980).
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Ot.-er evidence also indicates that journalistic framing does influ-
ence the ways in which stories about science and environment are con-
structed. A study of journalists' coverage of social science research
topics by Weiss and Singer (1988) found that reporters rarely defined the
topics they dealt with as belonging to the domain of science or of scien-
tific disciplines. Instead, they framed them as "crime stories" or "poll
stories." The absence of a "science" frame, then, made the use of scien-
tific information rare in these accounts. In a more recent study, Ryan,
Dunwoody and Tankard (1991) examined newspaper and magazine coverage of
two risks -- a nuclear power plant accident and publication of a study
positing a relationship between coffee-drinking and pancreatic cancer --
and concluded that coverage differences were more closely related to the
employment of different frames than to other predictors. The coffee and
pancreatic cancer story was immediately defined as a "risk" story, while
the nuclear power plant story was defined as an "accident" story. As a
result, stories about the former concentrated on explaining the risk while
stories about the latter focused on "what happened" in the course of the
accident. Although small amounts of radioactive steam did escape from the
power plant during the accident, journalists paid little attention to
questions of risk in their stories.
Considerable evidence suggests that frames used by journalists for
story construction are not idiosyncratic (e.g., Rachlin, 1988; van Dijk,
1988). Rather, journalists across a wide range of media seem to employ
similar mental maps and, thus, produce stories that reconstitute the world
in similar ways. In this study, we posit that community conflict control
processes systematically affect the frames journalists learn to apply,
probably reflexively, to stories in their communities that could raise, or
be related to, local conflict. For example, the news media in a community
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couia give some stress to alerting audiences to problems or dangers
arising from environmental contamination, or emphasize how these prob
or dangers ar.e being solved. A "problem" frame given to a story about
contamination from a source local to the community (e.g., alerting
residents to the amount of pollution a local industry is spewing into the
air) is likely to be treated as conflict-generating information in the lo-
cal news media. A "solution" frame (e.g., stressing what the local indus-
try has done to prevent or clean up local contamination) would be treated
less as conflict-generating information and more as consensus-oriented in-
formation in the local news media. We investigate these and other frames
in our research. We also pay special attention to news media presentation
of information about health risks from local environmental contamination,
which, we posit, is also affected by community pluralism.
Risk Linkage. News media can present information about health risks
in various ways, for example, as a probability of becoming ill from
exposure to a contaminant, as a raw figure indicating the number of people
who have been affected by a health hazard, as an anecdote. In our study,
we are defining risk information in a very basic way, that is, as informa-
tion that links an environmental contaminant to harmful effects on human.
health (a "risk linkage"). We propose that information associating a lo-
cal individual or organizational (e.g., industrial) member of the communi-
ty with local environmental contamination that poses health risks is fun-
damentally conflict-oriented information in the community, and will be
controlled in some manner, as would any conflict information. Control of
this information could include downplaying, ridiculing, or not mentioning
the health risks from the contamination.
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Pluralism, Framing, Risk Information. We expect that the -iar.r.er ir.
wr.icr. local news media frame stories about local sources of contamination,
and portray risks from exposure to that contamination, will vary according
to community pluralism, in ways consistent with the roles of the news me-
dia in those communities. Media in less pluralistic locales, we expect,
will be much less willing to carry information about health hazards stem-
ming from local sources of contamination without at least adjusting their
presentations to minimize local conflict. These differences in media cov-
erage, .furthermore, are very important considerations in the planning and
conduct of public information efforts regarding Superfund sites and other
sources of contamination in local communities.
Our Studies That Follow
Based on the research on community structure and our conception of
how risk information might be differentially configured in different com-
munities, our general research question is:
What is the effect of community structure, in particular commu-
nity pluralism, on press coverage of health risks from local
sources of environmental contamination?
To answer our research question, we conducted a three-part,
multi-method research project, each component of which is presented in one
of the three chapters to follow:
o General Content Analysis — A quantitative content analysis of
framing and of presentation of risk information about local
environmental contamination in 16 communities (19 newspapers)
primarily in Wisconsin.
Synposis: This analysis provides a baseline suggesting that the case
studies that follow in subsequent chapters -- especially the quali-
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tacive Superfund case studies -- provide representative results.
This analysis in particular examines systematically the relation!
of community pluralism to local newspaper use of risk linkages, prob-
lem frames and solution frames when they report on local sources of
environmental contamination. Taken into account are the influences
of what are termed "covanates" or "control variables" -- some other
major factors that could affect this coverage. Among these variables
are some community factors (e.g., average amount of toxic releases
from each local industry, reliance of the community on manufacturing
for employment) and news organizational factors (e.g., size of the
news staff, kind of ownership).
o Superfund Case Studies -- Three qualitative case studies that ex-
plore, historically, the development of media framing and presenta-
tion of risk information from Superfund sites in Wisconsin.
Synposis: In each of these case studies we compare the coverage
given a local Superfund site by newspapers in relatively larger and
smaller communities. Our studies include qualitative content
analyses exploring the historical development of various frames and
the use of risk information in newspaper coverage, and interviews
with reporters, editors, and news sources regarding this coverage.
These studies also explore journalist-source relationships and how
characteristics of the news organizations themselves affected cover-
age of the Superfund sites.
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o Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Case Study -- A case s.-idv, jsi.-.g
quantitative concent analysis, of the ways that daily newspapers ir.
the Midwest covered a report issued by an environmental interest
group about toxic pollution in seven midwestern states, based on data
the group gathered from the Toxics Release Inventory.
Synopsis: Because our research has implications for risk communica-
tion public information programs, we cap our analyses with this
study. We examine how a news release and other public information
efforts affected news coverage of this report which provides data
about toxic releases from manufacturing -- information that might be
sensitive or raise conflict in communities reliant on manufacturing
for employment.
Because this component of our study deals with the effects of
public information efforts, we also employ Candy's (1982) model of
"information subsidies" to shed light on some of the key processes
involved. Gandy proposes that news releases and similar forms of
public information activities influence news coverage by making
certain kinds of information selectively more available to journal-
ists, and therefore easier for them to use. Turk (1986) proposes
that an agency subsidizing the news media with information might
thereby influence the public's awareness of what the agency wants to
stress. We analyze the effects of information subsidy on journal-
ists' news judgments (especially decisions about whether to publish
this TRI-based story at all, and if so, what information to include
in stories and stress in headlines) in the context of community
pluralism and reliance on manufacturing, and again account for the
influence of the various control variables. We provide a more
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corrplere overview of the information subsidies model wi-r.in t.-e
chapter that concerns the TRI case study.
•Independent' and 'Dependent' Variables. In sum, our study concen-
trates on the effects of community structure, especially pluralism, on
various aspects of newspaper content that concern environmental contamina-
tion and associated health risks. In social science parlance, variables
such as pluralism, which are considered to be active agents that affect
other variables, are termed "independent" variables. The variables that
are thought of as being influenced by the independent variables --in our
study, variables such as framing or the inclusion of risk information in
news items -- are termed "dependent" variables. We use this terminology
in the chapters that follow.
•Control' Variables ("Covariates"). Even though we isolate key
independent and dependent variables so that we can examine relationshi—
between them, these relationships usually take place in an ecosystem t
includes other variables and their relationships. These other variables
can also influence the dependent variable or even the relationship 'between
an independent and a dependent variable. For example, newspapers in more
pluralistic communities (independent variable) might include more informa-
tion linking health risks to local sources of contamination (dependent
variable) not because of the influence of pluralism but because newspapers
in bigger communities tend to have larger news staffs and therefore the
resources to track down information about local health risks, which can be
challenging for journalists to get. It is essential to account for the
impact of key additional variables if we are to understand the dynamics of
the relationship between pluralism and the content of risk-related news
items in a community. When additional variables such as the size of the
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-.-*= s-aff are included in an analysis, they are termed "control"
variables or "covanates. " We account for the following essential media
organizational and community variables across all three components of our
study (the two quantitative content analyses and the historical/qualitat-
ive case studies):
o News staff size, as noted, represents resources that local news media
can devote to gathering information -- including risk information --
about local contamination.
o Individual or corporate ownership, as noted earlier, could affect
coverage of local conflict and local businesses and, therefore,
reporting on contamination from those sources. In regard to informa-
tion subsidies, Gandy (1982) has called for more research into the
effects of newspaper ownership structures on the messages that
newspapers produce.
o The presence of an environmental or science reporter on the staff
signals that the paper (1) has a strong organizational, structural
commitment to covering those areas of news and (2) might have staff
expertise in coverage of environmental risk, which could affect cov-
erage.
o Staff generation of the story, as compared to wire-service genera-
tion, would also be expected to affect the inclusion of local detail.
This variable is included among the dependent variables in the TRI
case study, and is also used as a control variable in some parts of
that analysis.
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:c—-.-.ivy ccvariates include che extent to which the ccrr^r.ity rel.es
or. industry for employment and how environmentally "clean" or "dirty"
those industries are (toxic releases per industry)/ °n the average.
Because news organizations often pay deference to economic and political
powers in the community (Tichenor et. al., 1980; Olien et al., 1989), these
variables could affect coverage of those health risks stemming from envi-
ronmental contamination from local industry.
Some parts of our study include some other relevant control
variables. For example, newspapers published daily tend to have more
space to elaborate the news (e.g., explain risk) than do weekly or
semi-weekly newspapers. Our general content analysis and two of the
Superfund case studies include newspapers with such differences. The TRI
case study includes only daily newspapers but controls for variables
related to the public information efforts that we are assessing.
Analysis. In our qualitative case studies, we refer to the likely
effects of independent variables and covariates whenever they seem rele-
vant to our findings.
In our quantitative content analyses, we display in tables the
relationships of independent variables to the various dependent variables.
To simplify the tables, these relationships are represented by using a
commonly used statistic, the percentage. To account for the influence of
the control variables, we used a program available in the Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to adjust the results displayed in
the tables by the control variables. In other words, the results found in
the tables generally represent what we found after we compensated for the
influence of the control variables.
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Because the data in the quantitative content analyses are from a
census, not a sample, probability tests of statistical significance -
such as those commonly found in the report of a sample survey -- are not
being used. Instead, we use the statistic "epsilon" to determine whether
differences in percentages are significant, that is, strong enough to be
worth consideration.
According to Babbie (1982), epsilon is "the percentage point differ-
ence separating the extreme categories of an independent variable, as
described in terms of some dependent variable" (p. 293) . As a rule of
thumb, Babbie (1982) says, epsilon needs to be at least 10 percentage
points (.10) of difference to be worth noting, and epsilon values greater
than 20 points (.20) usually signal an important relationship.[1.2]
If any of the control variables have significant relationships with
the dependent variable, we report those in tables and text too. These
relationships are depicted by the statistic "beta."[1.3] As a rule of
thumb, beta must be at least .20 in absolute value to be considered
significant in our study. Beta values in our analyses are also controlled
by the other covariates.
Contribution. What's new and valuable about our study? Our study
supplants speculation with evidence about the forces that affect the
presentation of risk-related news accounts in local newspapers, especially
by bringing to light the workings of community structure and how pluralism
[1.2] For example, suppose that a hypothetical study examines the effects
of educational achievement (independent variable) on the frequency
of reading a newspaper (dependent variable). The study finds that
50% of high school graduates read a newspaper every day, whereas
only 20% of the people who never completed high school read a
newspaper every day. The difference in percentages, expressed as
.50 - .20, yields,an epsilon value of .30, which represents the
strength of the relationship between education and newspaper reading
in this hypothetical study. If the difference in percentages were
less (e.g., .30 - .20), epsilon would be smaller (.10) and the
relationship of education to readership would be weaker.
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in particular influences media framing of news accounts aocut local
sources of environmental contamination. The relationship of community
structure to framing and to the presentation of risk information is
previously unexplored.
While it is possible to speculate on the effects of this content on
members of the community, any conclusions about audience effects require
evidence of those effects, which is outside the realm of our study.
Therefore, it not appropriate for us to recommend that particular message
strategies will be more or less effective with audiences. Instead, at the
end of this report, we will offer some general insights and guidelines
that should help professionals formulate their public information efforts
when dealing with news media in different kinds of communities -- in
particular to segment communities according to pluralism, as Grunig (1989)
recommends, with an understanding of the social forces that are operating.
The research presented in the following chapters should be particu-
larly valuable to those planning community information efforts that deal
with industries and other local sources of environmental contamination,
especially when disseminating such information could provoke local
[1.3] Beta values range from -1 through zero to +1, and represent the
strength of linear relationships between two variables. If beta is
positive, it indicates that greater values of one variable are asso-
ciated with greater values of the other variable. If beta is
negative, it means that greater values of one variable are associat-
ed with lesser values of the other variable. For example, if the
relationship between the number of years of formal education and the
number of days a week a person reads a newspaper yields a beta value
that is positive, it means that the more years of education one has,
the more days a week one reads a newspaper. If beta would be
negative, it means that the more education one has, the fewer days a
week one reads a newspaper. The bigger the decimal value of beta,
the stronger is the relationship between the two variables. As a
rule of thumb, beta values of less than .20 in absolute value are
usually considered weak (and will not be reported in our study),
betas of .20 to .40 in absolute value are usually considered
moderate, and betas greater than .40 in absolute value are usually
considered strong.
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ser.sitivi-ies. We hope that the theory and research that we present will
help public information program planners deal creatively with such prc
1 ems.
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CHAPTER TWO:
GENERAL CONTENT ANALYSIS
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Introduction
This chapter employs a content analysis of 19 newspapers in 16 d
nities to investigate the effects of community pluralism on press treat-
ment of health risks and other problems that stem from local environmental
contamination. The broad base of this analysis provides a baseline that
underscores the representativeness of the case studies that follow in
subsequent chapters, especially the Superfund historical case studies,
which are based on qualitative methodology. In this content analysis, we
employ a social scientific method and present our results in a hypo-
thesis-testing format.
Hypotheses
We expect that the extent to which local news media contain informa-
tion about environmental health risks from local sources of contamination
will vary according to community pluralism, in ways consistent with the
roles of news media in these communities. Media in less pluralistic 1
cales, we expect, will be much less willing to carry such information
without at least adjusting its presentation to minimize local conflict.
Therefore:
HI: Newspapers in more pluralistic communities will be more
likely than newspapers in less pluralistic communities to link
local contamination from local agents to threats to human
health.
Although we have no formal hypotheses, we will also investigate
whether any differences exist in the ways these newspapers emphasize risk
from this contamination in headlines.
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Because media in more pluralistic communities are expected to oe ~cre
li.
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METHOD
A content analysis was conducted of 19 newspapers in 16 communic
selected to represent,• primarily, variance in community pluralism. The
communities, however, were also chosen with an eye toward achieving a mix
of daily and weekly newspapers, urban/suburban/rural locales, and levels
of known local pollution.[2.11 We analyzed only newspapers because some
smaller communities had local newspapers but no local broadcast (especial-
ly television) stations, and because we did not have the resources to mon-
itor all local broadcast news in these communities. Except for Chicago,
all communities are in Wisconsin. We included Chicago to increase vari-
ance in community pluralism in our study.
Item Selection
We analyzed nine months of press coverage of risks from environmental
contaminants (January through September 1991) in all 19 newspapers, choos-
ing for coding all items that met selection criteria. To be included
items had to relate to those aspects of known environmental contaminants
that could reasonably be associated with human health risks, whether or
[2.1] Two cities in the study, Milwaukee and Chicago, each have two major
competing daily newspapers,' both of which were analyzed. A third
city, Waukesha, is in the greater Milwaukee area, and has a daily we
analyzed. Suburban weekly newspapers with separate editorial staffs
in the Milwaukee suburbs of Brookfield, Menomonee Falls, and
Franklin, and in the Green Bay suburb of DePere, were also chosen
for the analysis. Other weekly newspapers in the analysis were from
the smaller communities of Oconomowoc, Algoma, Oregon, Stoughton,
Delavan (biweekly), and Sparta, which has two competing weekly
newspapers. Also analyzed were daily newspapers from the mid-size
Wisconsin cities of Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, and Sheboygan.
Along with representing variance in community pluralism and in
urban/suburban/rural locale, communities were also chosen because
they have Superfund toxic cleanup sites within their boundaries or
nearby, and/or represent variance in toxic releases per industry
that is important for analysis. (The smaller community of Sparta,
for example, has a higher level of per-industry toxic release than
other smaller communities, and a higher level than even the city of
Milwaukee.)
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nz~ ".e i.er actually mentioned those risks, or had to relate to r.^-ar.
heal:.-, maladies that are known to be associated with exposure to environ-
mental contaminants.[2.2] Our system for deciding whether or not an item
would be inoiuded is shown under the heading of "Selection Protocol" on
the first page o'f APPENDIX A. Notice that a story did not have to contain
a link between a contaminant and a health threat to be selected for this
analysis. Rather, we selected stories for which such statements would be
reasonable candidates for inclusion. After selection and clipping from
the newspaper, items were separated from headlines and coded separately
after lengthy time intervals had diminished coder memories of the connec-
tion of newspaper, story, and headline.
In this analysis, we deal with the subset (n=362) of selected items
that: (1) concern contaminants that are linked to contaminators (busi-
ness, government agency, individual, or other agents specified in the sto-
ries as responsible for, or potentially responsible for, the contamina-
tion) ; (2) do not concern contagious diseases; and (3) involve situations
in which both the contaminant and the contaminator are in the same
location. These criteria allow us to compare media treatments of cases in
which agents are associated with the contamination locally, in distant
places, or "generically" (e.g., stories about pollution from coal-fired
[2.2] We did not include in the analysis items that might have mentioned a
known contaminant, such as paint, when the context had to do with,
for example, choosing paint colors for decorating. While cautionary
statements about proper ventilation and disposal could possibly be
included in such an item, the context would tend to preclude jour-
nalists from including risk information. In such a case, the aspect
of this contaminant dealt with in the story would be deemed not
reasonably associated with a risk or hazard to human health. If the
item were to concern the manufacture of paint, disposal of paint
(e.g., landfills, pouring down drains), etc., the item would be
included. Various lists of known and commonly used terms for
hazardous contaminants, as well as background references (e.g.,
EPA's Title III List of Lists, the Merck Manual) were used to help
verify the connection of contaminants to human health maladies.
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cower plants nationally).
Our content analysis coding guide can be found in APPENDIX A.
Item Coding
Items for this analysis were coded according to the location of the
contaminator and contaminant and the presence or absence of a risk link-
age, risk headline, problem frame, solution frame, and event base, and
whether the item is staff-generated (see section on control variables in
Chapter One). Intercoder (three-coder) reliability overall for the
content analysis coding scheme is an acceptable .80, using a method
I
refined by Krippendorf (1980). [2.3]
To measure location, the contaminant and the contaminator were coded
as being "local" if the item depicted them as being within the primary
news gathering area of the newspaper (e.g., usually corporate limits for
towns, metropolitan area for newspapers in central cities of Standard y~" •
[2.3] A content analysis coding scheme, as a scientific instrument, should
be "reliable," that is, yield consistent results regardless of who
applies the scheme or when it is applied. A common way to ascertain
the reliability of a coding scheme is to have at least two
independent observers (coders) apply the scheme to a subset of the
items under study, and then compare their observations to see how
often they agree. For example, coders might read a set of news
items dealing with contamination and code each one according to
whether or not it contains a risk linkage. Their coding judgments
might then be compared across the items to see how often they agree
(expressed as a percentage of agreement). Under perfect
circumstances, they would agree 100% of the time. In the social
sciences, it is very difficult to achieve that level of agreement
(or absence of error in measurement), especially when coding schemes
become more complicated or deal with somewhat abstract phenomena
(e.g., textual frames or risk linkages). Commonly, agreement of
about 80% is considered quite acceptable. Even though reporting
inter-coder reliability as a percentage of agreement is acceptable,
that approach does not take into account how often the coders would
have agreed by pure chance alone (Stempel, 1989) . Krippendorf
(1980) offers a more demanding strategy that takes chance into
account and allows one to examine intercoder reliability for more
than two coders. In our analysis, three coders scored 15 randomly
selected stories front our sample. Intercoder reliability across the
15 stories ranged from .67 to .91, and averaged .80.
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ropclitan Statistical Areas) as determined by consulting editors of eacr.
newspaper and other sources in advance of our data gathering. The
contaminant and the contaminator were coded as being "distant" if the it en
depicted them as being in specific locales beyond even a region of sec-
ondary (occasional) staff newsgathering surrounding the newspaper.[2.4]
The contaminant and the contaminator were coded as being in a "generic"
location if the item depicted them as being in many places or essentially
"everywhere or anywhere," not to preclude their being potentially local as
well. An example of a "generic" story is a lengthy article about
mercury-contaminated fish by Keith Schneider of the New York Times
Service, published in the Eau Claire (WI) Leader-Telegram on September 13,
1991, which began as follows:
DULUTH, Minn. -- Two decades after the government thought
the problem had been put to rest, mercury is accumulating in
fish in thousands of lakes across the United States and
Canada, poisoning wildlife and threatening human health.
A few paragraphs later, the article continues:
Scientists say the principal source of contamination is
rain containing traces of mercury from coal-burning power
plants, municipal incinerators and smelters. Other contamina-
tion comes from lake and ocean sediments previously polluted
by mercury.
Another example is a background-type article on the question of
health hazards from electromagnetic fields written by Casey Bukro in the
Chicago Tribune of May 26, 1991, which began as follows:
[2.4] The primary "local" newsgathering area usually coincided with the
primary area of circulation. In the coding scheme, the location of
some contaminants and contaminators was coded as "regional" if x they
were within a geographic area of secondary staff newsgathering
activity, beyond local, as defined by the newspaper. We left these
•regional" items out of the analysis because there were too few of
them to stand alone as a separate category of analysis, and
combining them with either "local" or "distant* items produced prob-
lems in regard to definition of local community. There were . also
too few cases of cross-locations (e.g., distant contaminators
producing local contamination) for analysis.
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More than a decade after the first studies suggesting a
i.ealth hazard in the electromagnetic fields created by
high-power lines and household appliances, the word most often
used to describe the body of research is "inconclusive."
However, two areas of research are drawing increased
scrutirty. One points to physiological changes that are now
known to be caused by electromagnetic fields, or EMFs. The
other focuses on the statistical link between childhood
cancers and exposure to the fields.
Neither of the above articles includes information about the local
situation, nor pins the problem to some distant locale.f
An item was coded as having a risk linkage if the item refers to a
connection between human exposure to the contaminant and contraction of a
malady, regardless of the level of probability (or risk). Risk linkages
included statements in stories such as "exposure to hydrochloric acid can
cause burns" (Chicago Tribune, June 20, 1991), "some studies have linked
high levels of radium with bone cancer" (Waukesha Freeman, April 12,
1991), and "toxic air pollutants such as airborne chemicals and metals are
blamed for serious illnesses and are estimated to contribute to 1,500
3,000 fatal cancers a year, according to the EPA' (Chicago Sun-Times, June
3, 1991).
A headline was coded as a risk headline if it contained a risk link-
age or any of a set of terms (e.g., toxic,-poisonous, harmful, hazardous)
we termed "risk signals." (See APPENDIX A, Section AE.) Risk headlines
included "State steps up effort to detect dangerous ozone" (Milwaukee
Journal, April 30, 1991) and "DA urged to take action on lead paint
hazard" (Milwaukee Journal. August 23, 1991).
An item was coded as having a problem frame if the first three para-
graphs contained information alerting readers to a problem or danger. For
example, the second and third paragraphs from the beginning of the
following Associated Press news story, published in the Eau Claire (WI)
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Leader-T5-=gr=.-n on April 15, 1991, are evidence of a pro'cle- frar.e
WHITING, Ind. (AP) -- For more than a century, the giant
Amoco Oil refinery has given this small northwest Indiana city
a steady source of jobs and a solid tax base.
But it has also left behind a 16 million-gallon petroleum
leak t?tat could take 20 years to clean up, and the environ-
mental dilemma has strained relations between local residents
and their ma^or industry.
"There's a lot of distrust," said Mayor Robert Bercik,
whose grandfather worked at the refinery that opened 102 years
ago. "People fear a big company."
An item was coded as having a solution frame if the first three para-
graphs contained information about how problems or dangers are being dealt
with, or might be dealt with (including being prevented). For example,
the following first paragraph from a story in the January 5, 1991, issue
of the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram is indicative of a solution frame:
Work is scheduled to resume in mid-January on the cleanup
of six sites'in Dunn and St. Croix counties contaminated with
lead from a car battery recycling company.
An item can be coded as having both a problem frame and a solution frame.
If, for example, a solution is depicted as uncertain (controversial, not
totally effective), and does not effectively solve the problem, then the
item could have a problem frame as well as a solution frame, because the
problem, at least in part, remains. Relatively few—less than a quar-
ter—of the items in our analysis had both a problem frame and a solution
frame.
An item was coded as event-based if the information in the first
three paragraphs was derived from a specific event (e.g., accident,
speech, meeting, news conference), named in the story, that had occurred
in the past week (or which the item termed "recent'), or would occur in
the upcoming week. Reporter interviews of sources were not considered to
be "events." An example of an event-based item can be found in an Associ-
ated Press story published January 2, 1991, in the Chicago Tribune:
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ST. LOUIS, MO.--AP--A federal judge has approved a muiti-
miliion dollar plan to burn dioxin-concaminaced soil from 28
eastern Missouri communities at a temporary incinerator to be
built in the former town of Times Beach.
Later, the item states:
The incinerator plan, Wangle said in his ruling Monday,
was a carefully negotiated solution to the "dioxin mess."
This story was also considered to have a solution frame.
Community Pluralism
Based on the work of Dunwoody and Rossow (1989), we indexed [2.5]
community pluralism by summing the rankings of each of the communities on
the following variables: (1) population; (2) proportion of school
[2.5] Whenever practical, social scientists try to employ more than one
indicator, or measure, of a phenomenon. Socioeconomic status (SES),
for example, is commonly assessed by measures of income, years of
formal education, and occupational status. A set of such meas"""5
all relating to the same phenomenon (e.g., SES) can produce a
stable or reliable indictor of the phenomenon than a single mea
would, provided that all these measures correlate reasonably well
with one another and represent various aspects of the phenomenon.
If so, the measures can be standardized (a technique for putting
different measures--e.g., education measured in years and income
measured in dollars—on the same numerical scale for addition) and
summed to form a "summated measure" {or "index") of the phenomenon.
Cronbach's alpha is an indicator of the reliability of an index,
based on how well the measures that comprise the index relate to one
another. Our pluralism variable is an index, too. We used
Cronbach's alpha to determine which mixture of measures produced an
optimum set to comprise the pluralism index—high in reliability and
as inclusive as possible of various individual measures, each of
which represents a different facet of pluralism. Although it is an
imperfect indicator, the telephone book Yellow Pages was used to
determine the number of "Social Service Organizations" in each
community, and the number of religious denominations (as major
subheadings under the "Churches' listing). School information came
from the state departments of public instruction. Dunwoody and
-Rossow (1989) had also added a measure of number of businesses per
capita to their index. This measure was removed from the index in
this analysis because it reduced overall reliability to an
unacceptable alpha of .59. Removing the social service organization
variable from the index improves reliability somewhat (.86), but
results in some important loss in discriminitory power in the index.
Therefore, it was kept in the index.
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c'r.ildrer. : ir. grades kindergarten through 12) who are nr.ori-ies cr ir.
privace schools; (3) number of religious denominations; and (4) number of
voluntary social service organizations. The index has an acceptable alpha
of .74.
Because there is no standard criterion for dividing communities into
various levels of pluralism, we used a more comparative approach by
ranking the 362 news items according to the pluralism of their communities
of origin. To establish sets of items from "High Pluralism" communities
and from "Low Pluralism" communities, we then divided the items as evenly
as possible into those groups. This technique yielded a group of 208
items from three "High Pluralism" communities (Chicago, Milwaukee, Wauke-
sha) and five daily newspapers. The rest of the items were therefore from
communities considered to be, relatively speaking, "Low Pluralism."
Control Variables
Community covariates include community reliance on manufacturing and
toxic releases per industry. To represent community reliance on
manufacturing, we divided the number of people employed by manufacturers
in each community (Census of_ Manufactures, 1990) by the population of the
community. To represent toxic releases per industry, we divided Toxics
Release Inventory [2.6] data for each community by the number of
industrial facilities in the community (Census of_ Manufactures, 1990} .
Media organization covariates were gathered by contacting each news
organization to verify publication frequency (whether or not the paper is
[2.6] The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986 re-
quires manufacturers in a variety of industries to report annually
the amount of hazardous chemicals they have released into the envi-
ronment or have transferred to treatment or disposal facilities.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gathers this informa-
tion and makes it publicly available through a national computerized
database termed the "Toxics Release Inventory" (TRI), which is
updated annually.
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a daily), editorial staff size (the number of rep.rters and non-manageirer.:
editors), presence of a science or environmental reporter (whether sor
is assigned to cover either or both of these areas regularly), and owner-
ship. Based on a measure developed by Olien et al. (1988), we discrimin-
ated the kind and locale of ownership with the following continuous scale:
(1) local, independently owned; (2) owned by chain, local headquarters;
(3) owned by chain, headquarters in same state; (4) owned by chain, head-
quarters out-of-state. To represent the staff generation control
variable, each item gathered in the analysis was coded according to
whether local news staff members generated all, part, or none of the item.
RESULTS
Because all items in this analysis attribute contaminants to agents
in the same "location" as the contaminant, we are able to compare
dependent variables (media use of risk linkage, risk headline, problem
frame, solution frame, and event base) based on pluralism of the commu
and location of the contamination.
Risk Content
Nearly half (48%) of the items in our analysis contain a risk link-
age. Our first hypothesis (Hi) proposed that newspapers in more
pluralistic communities will be more likely than newspapers in less
pluralistic communities to link local contamination from local agents to
threats to human health.
Table 2.1 shows the results of our analysis as adjusted to account
for the influence of the control variables.
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Table 2.1
Risk Linkage, Problem Frames. Solution Frames, Event Base
and Risk 'in Headline
by Community Pluralism
and Contaminator/Contaminant Location
(Excluding Contagious Diseases)
Pluralism of Community
Dependent:
Risk Linkage
Risk Headline
Problem Frame
Solution Frame
Event Base
LOW
LOCATION ;
Local Distant
30%
14%
62%
50%
81%
52%
4%
91%
22%
73%
Generic
84%
40%
81%
26%
32%
HIGH
LOCATION :
Local Distant
47%
21%
80%
38%
66%
30%
20%
78%
33%
63%
Generic
47%
18%
84%
51%
50%
N Items=
56
55
43
76
70
62
362
[Percentages adjusted by control variables)
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Ir. -ere pluralistic communities, 47% of che items concerning iocs!
contamination (i.e., both the contaminator and contaminant are local)
include a risk linkage. In less pluralistic communities, only 30% of the
items concerning local contamination include a risk linkage. Epsilon in
this case is .17 (.47 - .30). Therefore, Hi is supported.
The ad]usted percentages in Table 2.1 also show that low pluralism
media are more likely to publish stories with risk linkages when the con-
tamination is distant rather than local, whereas high pluralism media are
more likely to publish stories with risk linkages when the contamination
is local rather than distant. These patterns tend to support the idea
that media in more pluralistic communities might be playing more of a lo-
cal "feedback" or "watchdog" role, while media in less pluralistic commu-
nities might be playing more of a local "booster" role, in part by effect-
ively portraying distant communities as "riskier" to health than one's
hometown.
Particularly noteworthy, and somewhat surprising, is that low pluien.-
ism media tend to stress risk linkages when publishing "generic" contami-
nation stories (84% of these stories as adjusted), in sharp contrast to
the lower presence of risk linkages otherwise in any of the categories of
contamination items run by low or high pluralism papers.
Only about 19% of the items in the analysis were topped by a headline
with a risk linkage or, much more commonly, a risk signal. In a pattern
somewhat similar to that for risk linkages in stories, these risk head-
lines were much more prevalent in generic stories published by low plural-
ism media (about 40% of the generic items) than in any of the other
categories of stories published by high or low pluralism media. Other-
wise, differences in uses of risk headlines are relatively small across
categories of pluralism and contamination location.
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Event Base
As would be expected in news accounts, most items in the analysis
(61%) are based on events that occurred in the recent past or will occur
in the near future. The reliance of low-pluralism media on events to
drive their coverage of local contamination is particularly noteworthy,
because the vast majority of this coverage (81% as adjusted) is
event-based.
In contrast, generic stories tend to be less event-based than other
kinds of stories, especially in low-pluralism papers where only about a
third of the generic stories are event-based. Editors of low-pluralism
papers seem attracted to the more feature-like stories about generic con-
tamination, probably because these stories are less timebound and there-
fore can be used whenever space permits.
The reason that generic contamination stories in low pluralism media
seem to stress risk linkages, and are spotlighted to some extent by risk
headlines, is not clear. One possibility is that this configuration of
risk information is part of a pattern that effectively makes other places
seem riskier than the local community, which fits into the "booster" role
of less pluralistic papers. Another is that these generic stories might
provide information about risks to health relevant to the local community.
but these risk linkages are not overtly localized in the items because to
-do so might pinpoint local contaminators and therefore raise local con-
flict. The second strategy might satisfy the small community editor's
professional desire to disseminate information essential to the community
(Donohue et al., 1989) while still minimizing local conflict information
in the low pluralism news media.
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Story Frames
The vast majority, 79%, of the items in this analysis have probJ
frames. This result might be expected, because journalism typically deals
with alerting audiences to problems or dangers. Our second hypothesis
proposed that newspapers in more pluralistic communities will be more
likely than newspapers in less pluralistic communities to employ problem
frames in stories about local contamination from local agents.
As Table 2.1 shows, 80% of the items concerning local contamination
in high pluralism newspapers had problem frames, as compared to 62% of the
same kind of item in low pluralism newspapers (epsilon = .18). Therefore,
our second hypothesis is supported.
Although the prevalence of problem frames is about even in high plur-
alism papers, regardless of the location of the contamination, low plural-
ism papers tend to stress problem frames much more when the contamination
is distant or generic than when it is local.
Fewer (37%) of the items in our analysis had solution frames. OUL
third hypothesis proposed that newspapers in less pluralistic communities
will be more likely than newspapers in more pluralistic communities to
employ solution frames in stories about local contamination from local
agents.
As Table 2.1 shows, 50% of items about local contamination in low
pluralism papers had solution frames, as compared to 38% of the same type
of item in high pluralism papers (epsilon = .12). The results support H3
(.50 - .38), although not strongly.
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I.-. = zo.~-.errt similar to that for problem frames, solution frames are
•f'Cre evenly prevalent across contaminant locations in high pluralism
papers than in low pluralism papers. Solution frames in low pluralism
pacers are used much more commonly in reporting local contamination than
in reporting contamination that is distant or generic. Solution frames
are used almost as much as problem frames when low pluralism papers report
on local contamination, whereas the use of problem frames dominates the
use of solution frames when high pluralism papers report local contamina-
tion. High pluralism papers are more likely to publish generic stories
with solution frames than are low pluralism papers, which might indicate
heightened seeking, on the part of high pluralism papers, of alternate so-
lutions to local contamination problems via stories that review solutions
tried in many other places.
Although the patterns are not as strong as had been expected, the use
of these frames—in particular, problem frames—seems to be consistent
with the role of the press in less pluralistic communities as local
boosters and consensus-builders. In the pages of less pluralistic papers,
contamination is more problematic elsewhere, and solutions are less
forthcoming than at home. In comparison, papers in more pluralistic com-
munities are more likely to play a "feedback" role by depicting local con-
tamination in the context of a problem, and apparently attempting to feed
information about solutions into the local social system by being sensi-
tive to information about solutions elsewhere.
None of the covariates had strong (reportable) relationships with the
dependent variables.
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CONCLUSION
Based on the conflict/consensus model of Tichenor et_ al. (1980),
expected news media in less pluralistic communities to be boosters and
consensus-builders in their communities, and not as likely as news media
in more pluralistic communities to publish information that points fingers
at institutions (e.g., local businesses and industries) or individuals in
the community, or that could otherwise raise local concerns and conflict.
We proposed that information in local mass media signalling that local
agents are contaminating the local environment and posing health risks is
conflict-generating information and, therefore, will be controlled in
various ways in the interest of community stability. Such control would
be expected to vary by community structure and result in different config-
urations of information about local contamination in the local news media,
especially as represented by risk linkages, problem frames, and solution
frames.
Generally, our results confirmed that community pluralism is rela^c^
to the configuration of local mass media information about health risks
and other problems stemming from environmental contamination in the local
community, and elsewhere as well, in ways consistent with the theory.
Some specific findings:
o The location of the contamination (local, distant, or generic) had a
larger impact on use of risk linkages and framing (especially problem
framing) in less pluralistic media than in papers in more pluralistic
communities, indicating that location was a more sensitive matter to
less pluralistic papers, and entered more strongly into news judgment
(i.e.. the journalist's decisions about what information to include,
exclude, and stress in news accounts).
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o Papers in more pluralistic communities were more likely cnar. papers
in less pluralistic communities to link contamination from local
agents to threats to human health, and more likely to frame stories
about contamination from local agents in the context of a problem.
o Papers in less pluralistic communities were somewhat more likely than
papers in more pluralistic communities to frame local contamination
stories in the context of solutions to the problem, and to depict
contamination elsewhere more strongly in terms of risk linkages and
problem frames.
Although our research does not examine what audiences learn about
local risks from the mass media, it is possible that the patterns of media
coverage we found affect the amount of information about local risks
available in communities. As compared to residents of more pluralistic
communities, those who live in less pluralistic communities might get fron1
their local news less information about possible health risks and other
problems caused by local pollution sources. Further research might
examine this possibility.
Our study also found some interesting differences in the ways high
pluralism media use generic contamination stories (i.e., those concerning
pollution sources that are portrayed as being everywhere or anywhere) as
compared to the ways low pluralism media use them. These differences
might reflect the effects of community structure on news judgment and,
therefore, information configuration in the community. In particular:
o In high pluralism communities, generic stories appear to be sources
of additional information about alternate solutions to problems of
environmental contamination that have been considered, tried or
implemented elsewhere.
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o Media in low-pluralism communities tend to select predominantly
feature-type generic stories that contain risk-linkage informati
and spotlight many of them with risk headlines. Whether this pattern
reflects local boosterism, or an attempt to convey locally relevant
risk information in a non-sensitive way, is unclear. Further
research could investigate these processes.
In addition, it would be fruitful to' investigate the kinds of infer-
ential cognitive processes audience members employ when'media present them
with generic stories with risk linkages. Under what circumstances do
people infer that this information might be locally and personally
relevant?
Our results indicate that public information efforts in regard to lo-
cal sources of toxic contamination must go beyond the usual sender-based
concerns about effective message designs to take into account community
structure, in particular community pluralism. As Grunig and Hunt (198
note, public information strategies that might be effective in metropo.^
tan areas might be counter-productive in small, rural communities, and
vice-versa.
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CHAPTER THREE:
SUPERFUND CASE STUDIES
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Introduction
This chapter explores reporters' use of risk information in a difi
enc way, by examining newspaper coverage of three Wisconsin Superfund
sites. The intentions of these three case studies are:
o To focus specifically on Superfund sites and their attendant risks;
o To examine the use of information about level of risk within cover-
age of complex risk issues that involve numerous actors and that
are not resolved for years; and
o To study not only published stories but also journalists', edit-
ors' and sources' perceptions of their behaviors in these set-
tings .
We selected three Wisconsin sites that fit a number of criteria. The
three sites had generated media coverage throughout their issue lifespans
and were still in the process of resolution. In each case the Superfund
location was served by at least two newspapers of different sizes, usua
from different communities. Finally, in each case the Wisconsin Division
of Health had completed studies of health risks posed by the site and had
reported those risks to residents and to journalists. Thus, specific in-
formation about the type and extent of health risks was available to in-
terested parties.
Our primary questions were as follows:
o What were the dominant frames within which journalists presented
information about the Superfund sites, and how did those frames
change over time for any one site?
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o .-..-.at rcle did information about the level of hazard play in cover-
age of these sites?
o what was the nature of the relationships between journalists and
sourcse?
o Did characteristics of the media organizations themselves influence
coverage?
o Did the nature of the community influence newspaper coverage of a
site?
The three sites chosen for the case studies were (1) National Presto
Industries Site in Eau Claire, (2) Better Brite Chrome and Zinc sites in
De Pere, and (3) Sheboygan River and Harbor and the neighboring Kohler
Company Landfill sites in Sheboygan.
In each case, the two primary investigators gathered Superfund sto-
ries from available newspapers for analysis and then journeyed to the site
to interview journalists, editors and sources. We also interviewed the
EPA remedial project manager responsible for each site at EPA Region 5
offices in Chicago. APPENDIX B lists the individuals interviewed for each
site. It was impossible to secure archival tapes from local television or
radio stations, so, although those media also covered the sites on a
regular basis, we do not analyze them here.
Each site was sufficiently different that we will report findings
separately. At the end of the chapter we discuss commonalities. Although
we are hesitant to generalize from sample size of three, some of the pat-
terns that these case studies share are suggestive.
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National Presto Industries Site in Eau Claire
History. Situated on land between the communities of Eau Claire a
Chippewa Falls, the 325-acre site that eventually became National Presto
Industries was originally owned by the federal government and purchased by
National Presto in 1948. The company initially produced consumer goods on
the site but, in 1954, dedicated the plant to producing metal bodies for
projectiles and shells under a contract with the U.S. Department of the
Army. The company ceased operations on the site in the late 1970s, and
the facility is now on Department of Defense standby status. National
Presto continues to thrive as a producer of small appliances at other
plant sites and maintains its national headquarters in Eau Claire.
Wastewater generated at the facility originally was discharged to
seven seepage pits on the property. When serious overflow problems devel-
oped in 1954, National Presto began pumping the wastewater into a former
sand and gravel pit. In the late 1960s, the company built three new
wastewater lagoons. At one time, up to 2.5 million gallons of wastewate-
per day were being discharged into the lagoons.
National Presto also disposed of spent forging compound on the site.
The compound, which contained roughly equal parts of asphalt, graphite and
mineral oil, was shuttled to an independent location on the property from
1967 to 1969 but also showed up in some of the lagoons.
In the early 1980s, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
(DNR) began to test for the presence of contaminants in the National Pres-
to vicinity. In 1983 the DNR detected traces of six volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) and five heavy metals in one of the lagoons. Then, in
1985, the DNR discovered that some private wells on the north side of Eau
Claire and in the unincorporated Town of Hallie, which is immediately
adjacent to the National Presto site, contained levels of volatile organic
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co~cc-r.ds z'na~ exceeded state standards. In 1986, tne DNR iin.
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o Discourage children from entering National Presto Industries'
grounds, where they could be exposed accidentally to contaminan:
in the soil.
In 1990, EPA recommended that the Hallie township build its own water
system to bypass the contaminated wells. Later that year, National Presto
Industries obtained Department of Army funding to help ameliorate the
problem and announced it would make those funds available to help pay for
the new water system.
At this writing, the Hallie water system is nearing completion.
National Presto is cleaning up its own site, apparently with the help of
additional funds from the Department of the Army. And state and federal
officials are on the verge of announcing that National Presto Industries
will be held responsible not only for contaminating water in the Hallie
area but also for contaminating Eau Claire city wells. These contaminated
wells were discovered in the early 1980s, but studies had only recently
linked the contamination to the National Presto site.
Media Coverage. Because the National Presto site is situated between
Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire, the daily newspapers in those two cities
both define the contaminated site as local news. The Chippewa Falls Her-
ald-Telegram, an afternoon paper, serves a community of more than 12,700
and had a 1992 circulation of 8,479. The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, also
an afternoon paper, is the newspaper of record for a community of some
55,000 individuals and, in 1992, reported a circulation of 31,753.
What were the dominant frames in the newspaper coverage and how did
they change over time? The newspaper stories about the National Presto
site over an eight-year period (1985-92) do indeed emphasize different
dimensions of the issue, and the movement from one focus to another looks
logical. Here is a listing of frames as they developed over time:
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Frame 1 (1935-86) : Well testing reveals the presence of conca.Tina-
tion ;
Frame 2 !1986) : Are the contaminants harmful?
Frame 3 (1986): The federal government steps in via Superfund to
administer the clean up;
Frame 4 (1986) : Who is responsible for the contamination?
Frame 5 (1986 on): How can we clean up the problem in a politically
acceptable way?
Four patterns are of interest here; we will articulate a fifth in the
next section.
First, the frames are not equally represented in the sets of stories.
In fact, some frames have extremely short lifespans while others remain
dominant for, literally, years. The frame of the overwhelming majority of
stories in this case study was the last one: Given the presence of a
problem, how can we fix it? This "solution" frame dominated coverage, in
all likelihood, because cleaning up a Superfund site takes years. In this
case, the first temporary solution -- requiring National Presto to furnish
clean water to residents whose wells were contaminated -- was proposed in
1986. The final solution -- construction of an independent water system
for the township of Hallie -- was just nearing completion in 1992.
Second, the two newspapers seemed to move sequentially through
frames. They rarely cycled back to pick up old frames. Once National
Presto Industries had been identified as the source of the contamination
in 1986, for example, we rarely encountered stories subsequently that
reiterated that position. That piece of information had become an
"assumed" part of the story.
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Third, scones were overwhelmingly event-oriented, suggesting that
the story frames were driven as much -- if not more -- by source actions
as by reporter decisions. When EPA held a public hearing to report on the
litany of possible solutions to the contaminated water wells in Hallie,
stories reflect that "solution" frame.
Yet, fourth, it is also clear that the frames suggested by the events
were interpreted -- by journalists and, likely, everyone else -- within
the particular social context of the communities involved. In this case,
the unincorporated town of Hallie decided to resolve its water problem by
building its own municipal water system, thus abandoning the private --
and now contaminated -- wells that furnished water to many Hallie resi-
dents. Driving that very expensive decision was a complex political rela-
tionship among Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire and Hallie. Both cities coveted
pieces of Hallie and annexed when they had an opportunity. Hallie assert-
ed its independence fiercely. The years-long "solution" frame, thus, was
immediately placed within a very territorial social context. Janean
Marti, Chippewa Falls bureau chief for the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, for
example, when asked what the National Presto Superfund story was really
about, responded that it had been predominantly about "a township trying
to preserve its identity." Another reporter, Bill Gharrity of the Lead-
er-Telegram, responded similarly that a large component of the story dealt
with "turf battles."
How did level of health hazard fare as a story frame? Hazards to
health flared briefly as a frame in 1986 and, again briefly, in 1989. The
first flare followed the initial stories about finding contaminants in
Hallie wells. The second flare was the direct result of a U.S. EPA public
meeting on April 5 at which Wisconsin Division of Health environmental
engineer Kim Bro discussed the results of the division's study of poten-
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cial neaitr. impacts from the VOCs found in the water.
But those flares were short-lived. More significant is how littl
space was devoted to questions of health risk over the lifespan of this
Superfund site. Among the literally hundreds of stories about National
Presto, no more than a handful even mention threat to health. We
speculate on reasons why at the end of this case studies chapter.
Information about level of risk in that handful of stories, for the
most part, reproduced the main themes articulated by sources. The uniform
message of the stories -- that the contaminants presented a small but sig-
nificant health risk -- survived different perceptions of the risk by
journalists writing the stories.
Eau Claire Leader-Telegram reporter Janean Marti, for instance, felt
that the risk posed by the contaminants was so small that it bordered on
being insignificant, and she became concerned that sources were pushing
residents to be more worried than they need be. When she received one
"alarming" memo from a governmental official that advised Hallie residents
to keep their children away from the National Presto site, Marti sought
out another source, who "belittled" the risk, to provide some balance in
her story.
By way of contrast, Mark Baker, editor of the Chippewa Falls Her-
ald-Telegram, never questioned the message that the risk was a significant
one. 'The risk was real,' he said. Thus, the only issue that mattered to
his newspaper, he asserted, was how to help Hallie residents fix the prob-
lem.
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Al'hougr: scones that contained risk information used official ns*
estimates uncritically,, it is not clear that reporters or editors
understood the information they printed. The one instance we found in
which a newspaper criticized a risk estimate, in fact, supports the
argument on behalf of ignorance: The most commonly cited characterization
of risk at the National Presto site was that the levels of VOCs in Hallie
well water exceeded Wisconsin's risk standard, which limits the level of
risk to no more than one death for every 1 million people who drink the
water every day for 70 years. Specifically, the Wisconsin DNR calculated
that the level of contaminants in the wells raised the risk to one death
in 100,000.
In an October 24, 1987, editorial, the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram got
the risk estimate wrong. It somehow mistook the level of risk as posing
"a one in one hundred thousand risk of contracting cancer from drinking 70
gallons o£ water per day over 70 years" (our emphasis) and devoted the ed-
itorial to a critique of governmental officials who persist in pushing
communities to do something about risks that are so small. Concluded the
editorial, "The EPA and DNR should do their part by disseminating realist-
ic information. Warning people not to drink 70 gallons of water a day for
i
70 years hardly qualifies." No one at the newspaper apparently knew enough
about risk levels to have questioned the original, inaccurate, assertion.
What was the nature of the relationships between journalists and
sources? With few exceptions (see section on risk above), reporters and
editors expressed confidence in such agencies as U.S. EPA and the Wiscon-
sin DNR to determine the level of risk and to convey that information to
various constituencies. The journalists we interviewed brought little
skepticism to their interactions with these sources.
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QIC newspaper resources make a difference in extent: o£ coverage? A"i -
chough the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram's circulation is nearly four tim<
that of the Chj.ppewa .Falls Herald-Telegram, it is not clear that the for-
mer produced more or substantially different coverage than the latter.
While the number of stories published in the two newspapers early in the
controversy did seem to reflect that resource disparity (i.e., the Chippe-
wa Falls paper routinely published fewer stories than did the Eau Claire
paper in the mid 1980s), by 1989 both newspapers were running dozens of
stories each year. Examining just the numbers of stories at that time
without seeing the newspapers themselves, in fact, might convince someone
that the two newspapers were of similar size and wealth. Why didn't re-
sources get reflected in the coverage? Here are two possible reasons:
o Although one newspaper was larger than the other, both are small,
relatively speaking. Thus, neither could afford to assign an
individual full-time to the Superfund site story. Instead, the
porter covering National Presto at any one time had to fit the cov-
erage in with all the other stories for which he or she was respon-
sible.
o Both newspapers responded to events and only rarely initiated sto-
ries. That strategy would produce similar numbers of stories as
long as the newspapers responded to the same events.
Did the nature of the communities influence newspaper coverage? We
saw some patterns in the coverage that suggest that social structure
indeed had an impact. Both these communities are relatively small: Chip-
pewa Falls has fewer than 15,000 residents and Eau Claire has fewer than
60,000. In the terminology of Tichenor, Donohue and Olien, such communi-
ties are often structurally homogeneous. One would expect newspapers in
such towns to practice consensual journalism. That is, one would expect
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tr.err. -o support the social fabric by playing down internal commu-iry
conflict.
Such conflict was a distinct possibility here, for the contaminator
was National Presto, a local company that, at one time, had been the big-
gest employer in the area. Exacerbating the issue was the company's reac-
tion: It tried very hard to avoid responsibility for the contaminated
groundwater and to avoid paying for cleanup.
How does a newspaper in such a community reflect reality when the
apparent villain is a local good corporate citizen who is balking at
taking responsibility for a problem? You cannot ignore the issue or the
company. But you can play down the company's role. Thus, you don't
highlight the company as a central player in the drama. You don't cover
the company aggressively. It never becomes the ultimate villain in your
stories. Those patterns, we argue, characterized treatment of National
Presto in the coverage by the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram and were also
reflected in the early coverage by the Chippewa Falls Herald-Telegram.
But what illuminated this pattern most vividly, we felt, were the
repercussions that apparently stemmed from a change in coverage of
National Presto initiated by the Chippewa Falls newspaper in the late
1980s.
Initial coverage of the National Presto issue by the Herald-Telegram
had all the markings of supportive journalism. The newspaper had been
running very few stories about the site, and those stories rarely took
National Presto to task. But in 1987 a new editor, Mark Baker, came on
board, and he took a very different tack. To Baker, National Presto's
behavior made the company "a poor corporate citizen,• and he felt his
newspaper's coverage should reflect that. Subsequent stories were so hard
on National Presto, said Baker, that the company complained about the new
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ediccr co -he newspaper's publisher. The publisher subsequently asked
Baker for an explanation. Baker, in urging his newspaper to actively
serve as a community watchdog, had apparently violated assumptions about
the role of that newspaper in Chippewa Falls.
Better Brite Chrome and Zinc Sites i.n De Pere
History. The Superfund site is really two industrial sites within a
half mile of each other, both located in a residential area of De Pere,
WI, approximately a quarter mile from the Fox River. One of the sites
began operation as a chromium plating facility called Better Brite Plat-
ing, Inc. in the 1960s; the company then opened an additional chromium
plating facility nearby in the mid-1970s. The older of the two sites was
converted to zinc plating by the late 1970s.
Trouble dogged the ,two sites. The Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources issued a number of citations to the company in the late 1970:
response to what DNR staff member Doug Rossberg called "substantial con-
tamination" at the chrome plating site. In 1978, for example, the DNR
received complaints about frozen yellow water behind the chrome shop.
Inspections indicated extensive chromium contamination of soil and water
on the site. The chromium plating tanks, situated largely below ground,
were apparently leaking "like sieves," said Rossberg. DNR estimated that
from 20,000 to 60,000 gallons of plating solution may have escaped from
the tanks.
Things at the zinc site were not much better. In the early 1980s,
DNR found elevated levels of cyanide, chromium, zinc, cadmium, lead,
silver, selenium, copper and nickel in the soil. The site also contained
drums of sludge contaminated with cadmium.
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The company made some efforts in 1979 to contain the contamination
but the state was not satisfied and, in 1980, filed suit to force Better
Brite to clean up the chromium shop. The company apparently did not
comply with the order and, in 1985, filed for bankruptcy and discontinued
operations at the chrome site. The zinc site continued operating under
the aegis of an examiner/trustee, however. In 1986 the examiner/trustee
purchased the site and continued the business until 1989. Operations at
the renamed Zinc Shop ceased in July 1989.
EPA first inspected the chromium site in 1984 and, two years later,
sent an emergency response team to investigate and begin cleaning up.
Personnel removed underground tanks, other storage tanks and approximately
83 tons of contaminated soils. The EPA team also investigated the zinc
plating site in 1986; in 1987 DNR installed monitoring wells there.
Still, in 1988, neighbors of the now-defunct chromium plating plant
complained that chromium-contaminated water was collecting in their back
yards. The sites were placed on the agency's Superfund cleanup list in
1990. That same year, EPA installed an on-site water treatment system to
treat up to 5,000 gallons of chromium-contaminated water per day; the
treated water could then safely be discharged into the De Pere sanitary
sewer system.
In 1989 the chromium plating building was sold and removed by the
owner. The area of the building was then capped with clay, and a fence
was installed. A second EPA assessment of the zinc plating site in 1990
led to the removal of solutions and the decontamination of vats at the
site. That same year, EPA installed a small groundwater sump at the zinc
site.
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Alsc ir. I99C, che Wisconsin Division of Health began a preli-.ir.ar-/
assessment: of the health risks posed by the two sites. It reported to
community in 1991 that, although cleanup efforts had left some contamina-
tion behind, the chromium still present at the sites poses no health risk
to neighbors. The Division of Health inspectors did worry, however, that
contamination might still reach the De Pere drinking water supply and ex-
pressed concern that one report of high levels of lead in the soil near
the chrome shop could signal a health hazard.
As of this writing, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has
been granted authority to coordinate the remaining cleanup operations and
is conducting a remedial investigation to explore options for doing so.
Media Coverage. De Pere is served by the weekly De Pere Journal,
which reported a 1992 circulation of 3,502. The present publisher, Paul
Creviere, is the second generation of Crevieres to own the Journal.
Paul's father bought the newspaper earlier in the century and relinquis
control to his son in 1964. Paul's wife, Marie, works as editor; they
hire one other reporter to round out the staff.
Just north of De Pere, where the Fox River empties into Green Bay,
sits the community of Green Bay, a city of more than 96,000. Two daily
newspapers serve the city, the morning News-Chronicle with a 1992 circula-
tion of 9,830, and the afternoon Press-Gazette with a circulation of
59,410.
What were the dominant frames in the newspaper coverage and how did
those frames change over time? The frame of coverage throughout the 1970s
was very much one of finding contamination at the two Better Brite sites.
The focus on the presence of contaminants continued into the 1980s, as a-
gencies continued testing soils and water.
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The 1930s produced a steady stream of stories that focused on what
Better Brite was doing or should have been doing about the contamination,
as well as on- legal efforts to force the company to take more concerted
action. By the late 1980s, the dominant coverage frame had turned to EPA
efforts to clean up the sites. From then on, the two primary focuses of
stories appeared to be clean up activities and continued legal actions to
obtain redress from the now-bankrupt Better Brite company.
Coverage by the three newspapers of this Superfund site, particularly
coverage in the Green Bay daily newspapers, shows more frame cycling than
we discovered in the National Presto case study. The cycling seems to be
a function of two things: journalists' reliance on officials to give them
a story frame and the unfolding nature of the Better Brite sites.
For example, the nature and extent of contamination at the National
Presto site was relatively quickly established, so the "what are contami-
nants and where are they" frame enjoyed an early but brief lifespan; it
never really emerged as a dominant frame again. In contrast, exploration
of the nature and extent of contamination at the Better Brite sites has
stretched over a period of years. Each new finding over the years produc-
ed a recurrence of the "what are the contaminants and where are they*
frame. Another reason for this recurring frame may be that at least one
of the contaminants -- chromium — is visible. Neighbors' periodic
complaints about pools of yellow water after a heavy rain may also have
helped promote the return to that theme.
The frames also vary by newspaper. Specifically, the weekly De Pere
Journal appears to have covered this lengthy issue very differently than
did the two daily newspapers in Green Bay. For example, the "what are the
contaminants and where are they" focus and attention to Better Brite as a
reluctant actor whose civic responsibilities must be wrung out of them by
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a courc are largely missing in the Journal coverage. We will return t
this difference later, when we discuss differences that might be attri-
buted to the nature of the communities.
How did level o_f health hazard fare as_ a_ story frame? As in the
National Presto case, health hazards got some play early in the Better
Brite story and again when the Division of Health reported on its prelimi-
nary health assessment in 1991. But those were not the only moments when
the health frame was front and center. That frame cycles throughout the
years of coverage -- again predominantly in the Green Bay daily newspapers
-- in a pattern quite different from our other case studies. In many
ways, hazards to health continue to the present as a recurring and,
perhaps, dominant frame for this site.
This pattern seems peculiar when one realizes that, among the three
case studies examined here, the Better Brite sites may be the least
hazardous. The Wisconsin Division of Health's preliminary assessment :
1990 found that remaining levels of the most ubiquitous contaminant at the
sites -- chromium -- did not present a health risk. Health officials'
primary worries were for1 the future: that investigators might yet detect
abnormally high levels of lead on the sites and that contamination from
the sites might eventually find its way into the city water wells.
What accounts for the continued media attention to health impacts are
the efforts primarily of one family, whose home abuts the chromium plating
site, to keep the theme alive. For years, family members have witnessed
yellow pools of water in their back yard, yellow-tinged snow, and yellow
water flooding into area basements during spring rains. Despite official
conclusions that the chromium contamination does not pose a 'significant
threat, family members complain that it has caused a variety of health
problems. As one of them told a Press-Gazette reporter:
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"It's not stretching it to compare this to Love Canal. In our family
everyone has some nerve damage. We've had cancer in one of our daughters.
And we're all**especially susceptible to skin rashes."
Reporters have generally been sympathetic to the concerns of neigh-
bors of the site. Thus, health concerns have remained a prominent theme
in coverage. Again, the exception to this pattern is the De Pere Journal.
Notably, the direction of coverage within this frame has been to
posit the contamination found at these sites as hazardous indeed. For ex-
ample, although the Division of Health preliminary assessment in 1991
basically concluded that the health risks were minimal, the lead on a
resulting story by one Green Bay newspaper asserted, 'The former Better
Brite plating shops in De Pere pose health problems to neighbors, a new
study suggests." Later, the story explained: "The sites pose a public
health hazard because of the potential for ingestion of on-site soil con-
taminated with lead and exposure through skin absorption to chromium-con-
taminated surface water or seepage water." The story contained no informa-
tion about level of risk.
In fact, we could find no stories in the three newspapers that
"explained" the risks in any detail. Most references to hazards, like the
one above, simply stated that a risk existed and then often went on to
offer prescriptive advice (e.g., "Health officials recommend that resi-
dents avoid contact with yellow-tinged puddles...."). One reporter
indicated that he tries to avoid numbers when writing about risk. "Whose
statistic are you going to use?" asked Terry Anderson, the Green Bay
Press-Gazette reporter who wrote the passages above. Anderson feels it is
dangerous to pick any one source as the primary source of risk informa-
tion. Additionally, he feels readers will have trouble interpreting
numbers. The bottom line for readers, he says, is that they want to know
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Face 52
whether they are safe.
Did reporters believe that the site presented demonstrable risks co
health? It is not clear. Anderson professes uncertainty. "I couldn't
tell you" if the contaminants pose a risk, he said in an interview. He,
like other reporters we interviewed, respects the level of worry apparent
among the few vocal families in the site neighborhood.
What was the nature o_f_ the relationships between journalists and
sources? As with the National Presto site, we encountered a relatively
benign atmosphere. Journalists treated information from EPA and such
state agencies as the Department of Natural Resources and the Division of
Health uncritically. Stories routinely criticize the lethargic nature of
the process but, as DNR Public Information Officer Dave Crehore notes,
"People have sort of resigned themselves to this slow-moving project."
Did newspaper resources make a difference in extent of_ coverage? rm~~
answer in this case study is an emphatic yes. Although editors and/or
porters at all three newspapers in this study claimed to write Better
Brite stories when "news" occurs, the total amount of coverage varied
rather directly by newspaper size, from the largest of the three, the
Green Bay Press-Gazette, to the smaller of the two dailies, the Green Bay
News-Chronicle, and finally down to the smallest paper, the De Pere Jour-
nal .
In fact, the Press-Gazette stands head and shoulders above the other
two not only in amount but also in type of coverage. While the
News-Chronicle and the De Pere Journal stuck pretty closely to events, the
Press-Gazette intermittently produced more reflective pieces. For exam-
ple, a story in 1988 focused on the troubles of one family whose house
abuts the chromium plating site. In 1989 the newspaper returned to
troubled families in the area for another story and did a historical ret-
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Page 33
respective OP. the site in the same issue.
The reason for such different behavior, we argue, is resource-based.
The Press-Gazecte, a newspaper with a circulation of more than 50,000, can
afford to allow some reporters to specialize. One of their specialists is
Terry Anderson, an environmental reporter. Better Brite is on his beat.
To Anderson, the Better Brite story is not only news but an opportu-
nity to show readers that, to paraphrase him, businesses need not be big
to create an environmental hazard. Even small, seemingly innocuous com-
panies can saddle communities with risks. He treats Better Brite as an
ongoing story, touching base periodically with EPA, DNR and with involved
residents. He says he does some "enterprise reporting," stories that are
not event-based, but that he, like most reporters, has little time for
such efforts. Indeed, most of his Better Brite stories are sparked by
hearings, meetings, official reports and the like.
The bottom line, however, is that the ability to field a reporter
with some environmental expertise, someone who has remained with the Bet-
ter Brite story over the years, has allowed the Press-Gazette to give its
readers a much more extensive accounting of the sites. The Press-Gazette
coverage is by far the best informed and most comprehensive coverage that
we examined.
Did the nature of. the communities influence newspaper coverage? We
think the answer is, again, yes. Here the interesting comparison is
between the daily Green Bay newspapers and the weekly De Pere Journal.
Recall that Tichenor, Donohue and Olien argue that newspapers in more
homogeneous communities have a greater stake in supporting the prevailing
power structure, while those that serve more heterogeneous communities are
more likely to be critical. In this case study, the homogeneous community
is De Pere; the heterogeneous community is Green Bay. And the newspapers
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Page 34
in these two communities indeed covered Better Brite in ways that refl
that "consensual vs. conflictive" difference.
For example, while the Green Bay newspapers did not hesitate to frame
the (now gone) owners of Better Brite as bad guys who balked at cleaning
up the contaminated sites and then, by declaring bankruptcy, fled their
responsibilities entirely, the De Pere newspaper took a very different
tack. The Journal stories not only avoid the issue of who is to blame but
seem to have ignored the former owners entirely.
The Journal also took a different approach to risk. While the Green
Bay newspapers seemed occasionally to play up the health risk angle, the
Journal played it down. For example, recall that the Green Bay Press-Ga-
zette began its story about the Wisconsin Division of Health's preliminary
health report in 1991 with the following lead: "The former Better Brite
plating shops in De Pere pose health problems to neighbors, a new study
suggests."
Contrast that with the De Pere Journal lead on the same story: "'We
have alleviated the immediate threat to humans and the environment,' David
Linnear, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Remedial Project Coor-
dinator, said in reference to the initial clean up at the Better Brite
chrome and zinc shop sites in west De Pere."
Behind these very different frames, we think, are important community
differences that are reflected in newspaper behavior. The Green Bay news-
papers serve a large and varied community that has wrestled with its share
of environmental polluters over the years. Reporters and editors don't
soft pedal stories about damage done by local paper mills, and Better
Brite looms as just another in the panoply of polluters.
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The 3e Pere Jourr.a 1, on the other hand, serves a small, homogeneous
community and ics staff is proud of the newspaper's ties to the town. The
newspaper clearly views itself as part of the support network for the com-
munity and, we think, worked to frame the Better Brite issue in ways that
downplayed a story that seemed to reflect poorly on the town, on local
government, and on long-time city residents who owned the Better Brite
company.
All three Journal staff members whom we interviewed, for example,
repeatedly asserted that the Better Brite issue, while a legitimate scory,
was not that important an issue in De Pere. The residents of De Pere,
they said, were largely indifferent to the sites. That indifference was
-understandable, they noted, because the sites pose no risk to the communi-
ty at large. Officials have pronounced the contamination harmless, and
city residents "have no reason to doubt what (officials) tell us.'
The publisher and editor of the Journal also recalled the former Bet-
ter Brite owners favorably. The family was active in the local chamber of
commerce and would give generously to civic endeavors, they noted. Better
Brite was a good, well-run company, they said, whose owners knew nothing
about the pollution at the time.
The bottom line for the De Pere Journal, it seemed, was to attend to
the news dimensions of the Better Brite issue when they occurred but to
define the larger story as a success story, as a tale about a relatively
benign environmental problem that is being handily solved.
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3,5-=, :-
-
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Tecumseh hired a firm to investigate the extent of PCS contamination
and ultimately located three PCB "hot spots" in the upper part of the
river, where concentrations in the sediments ranged as high as 4,500 parts
per million. EPA has dredged these and other sites-and is testing the
viability of destroying the PCBs in the sediment through biodegradation in
a facility built on Tecumseh property. Additionally, in 1990 EPA covered
approximately 13,500 square feet of river sediments with layers of fabric
and gravel, a process called "armoring."
Tecumseh continued dredging contaminated sediment in 1991 and storing
the sediment in a new, 600,000-gallon sediment containment tank on its
property. As of fall 1992, officials continue to monitor the water, fish
and sediments for the presence of PCBs. Results of the efforts to
biodegrade the PCBs are imminent. A final cleanup plan for the entire
site is forthcoming in 1993.
EPA is not the only organization working to restore the river and
harbor. In 1985 the Sheboygan County Water Quality Task Force was formed
to coordinate local efforts to find solutions to the contamination prob-
lem. It represents commercial anglers, the Sheboygan Yacht Club, the She-
boygan Chamber of Commerce, city and county government, sporting and con-
servation groups, industry and agriculture.
Another player is the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources,
which is preparing its own remedial action plan for the Sheboygan water-
shed in concert with the International Joint Commission, an organization
established by Canada and the United States to monitor Great Lakes activi-
ties.
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A second Superfunci site sits astride the Sheboygan River and Harbor
site. Kohler Company, a large plumbing-ware firm situated in Kohler, '
has operated a. landfill on approximately 40 acres of land on the bank of
the Sheboygan River since the early 1950s. Into that landfill over the
years have gone waste solvents, hydraulic oils, sludges from electroplat-
ing operations, chrome-plating operations, and paint wastes. Today, al-
though the landfill is still in use, only non-hazardous waste is being
dumped there.
Contaminated surface water runoff from the landfill was detected in
1983, and the site was placed on the National Priorities List in 1984.
The Kohler Company, identified as the potentially responsible party,
signed a consent order with EPA and the Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources in 1985, agreeing to determine the nature and scope of the prob-
lem.
Monitoring in the late 1980s found volatile organic compounds,
semi-volatile organic compounds and inorganic chemicals in the landfill,
soil, groundwater and leachate. Officials determined that the contami-
nants were present in levels exceeding federal and state standards for
drinking water, although they concluded that this poses no immediate
threat to health because most of the contaminated groundwater is flowing
into the Sheboygan River, not into private wells. Still, landfill workers
could be exposed to excessive levels,'as might future residents if the
site were later developed.
As of fall 1992, all parties concerned had agreed to a solution:
They will close the landfill, place a multilayer soil cap over the site
and collect and treat leachate from a perimeter drain. A feasibility
study is underway to explore options for cleaning up the groundwater.
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Media Coverage. Sheboygan and Sheboygan Falls each has its owr. r\ev»s-
paper, albeit of different sizes. The Sheboygan Press, an afternoon daily
with a circulation of 27,070, is the newspaper of record in Sheboygan, a
community of more than 49,600 residents. The Sheboygan Falls News is a
weekly that circulates 2,104 copies to residents of Sheboygan Falls.
What were the dominant frames ,in the newspaper coverage and how did
they change over time? From 1985 to the present, coverage of the Sheboy-
gan River and Harbor site focused on two main frames. One was "how to
clean up the contaminated river." The other was 'restoration of commercial
and recreational fishing." Some frames, such as "who caused the
contamination," received only glancing attention early in the coverage
while others, such as the health risk frame, were missing entirely.
While the National Presto case study offered a kind of linear march
of story frames and the Better Brite coverage seemed to cycle from one
frame to another and then back again, the pattern of coverage for the She-
boygan sites offers a more steady state picture. The two frames -- clean-
up efforts and restoration of fishing — remained major components of the
Sheboygan Press coverage throughout the seven years for which stories were
available. The weekly Sheboygan Falls News does not follow this pattern
-- in fact, it hardly attends to the Superfund sites at all -- and will be
discussed in a later section.
We found a smaller number of major themes in the Sheboygan Press cov-
erage than in coverage of daily newspapers in the other two case studies.
One reason is that, although we attended to coverage for an eight-year
period in this case study, awareness of the contamination of river,and
harbor sediments preceded that period by a number of years. Periodic
dredging of the harbor for commercial boat traffic during the 1960s and
early 1970s had produced evidence of contamination, and both the newspaper
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and corn-unity likely had focused on the extent and nature of contamination
long before the site was added to the Superfund list. Thus, by 1985, i
porters had moved on to what for all three case studies is the long-
est-lived frame: cleanup.
Another possible reason for the brevity of the frame list in this
case study is that one popular frame -- 'who caused the contamination" --
was quickly dispatched, at least for the river and harbor site. While in
most Superfund sites the responsible party is either long-gone or reluc-
tant to participate, in this case Tecumseh, a local business, quickly
stepped forward to accept responsibility and to play a major role in the
cleanup. Missing from the coverage, thus, were the many stories following
the legal wrangling that sometimes takes place as EPA and local officials
try to force the responsible parties to own up to their deeds. This theme
was very evident in the Better Brite coverage, for example.
Finally, we argue that the major frames adopted by the Sheboygan
Press are limited to those that reflect the largely economic -context
within which the contamination issue was given meaning by the community.
When contamination was identified in the 1970s, several factors worked to
reconstruct that information as an economic — not a health -- problem.
Among the factors:
o Sheboygan Harbor is classified by the Wisconsin Department of
Transportation as a diversified cargo port but must be dredged per-
iodically to remain navigable. The presence of contaminated sedi-
ments halted dredging in the 1980s.
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o Sr.eeoygan Harbor has periodic runs of Great Lake trout and salmon,
making sport fishing a nearly year-round enterprise. In face, says
former*'Sheboygan Press outdoor reporter Kurt Mueller, Sheboygan has
long considered itself "the capital of big-lake sport fishing." The
state typically has stocked coho and Chinook salmon and rainbow
trout in the fall and spring within Sheboygan Harbor. But stocking
ceased with the discovery of PCB-laden sediments.
o The area is also a lively commercial fishery. Offshore waters of
Lake Michigan provide a spawning area for whitefish, and the She-
boygan Harbor provides a nursery for these fish. Commercial fish-
ing for both whitefish and perch takes place just outside the har-
bor.
o The Sheboygan community has begun constructing a marina in part of
the harbor. Efforts in 1986 to dredge the area were rebuffed be-
cause the sediments might be contaminated. More recently, the city
was able to persuade authorities that the part of the harbor at is-
sue was not seriously contaminated, and work got under way.
The heavy emphasis on waterways as economic factors is expressed in a
particularly interesting way by the Sheboygan Press. That newspaper
maintains a full-time outdoor reporter -- not an environmental reporter --
who is responsible for such environmental topics as Superfund sites. The
difference between an outdoor and an environmental reporter can sometimes
be subtle, but most journalists would agree that the outdoor writer
focuses more on uses of the environment -- recreational outdoor activities
such as hunting, fishing, boating, for example -- than on describing and
understanding the environment and its problems. An outdoor reporter, we
contend, buys more readily into the argument that nature is at its most
valuable when it is being used by humans. Thus, such a journalist will be
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Page 92
more appealing to economic power structures because he or she is more
likely to define environmental issues in economic terms.
The goodness of fit between the outdoor writer and the Sheboygan com-
munity was illustrated at one point when the Press' longtime outdoor re-
porter, Kurt Mueller, resigned. According to the current outdoor report-
er, Barry Ginter, the Press initially considered getting rid of the beat.
But members of the numerous outdoor and conservation organizations in the
area protested,-and the beat was retained.
How did level o£ hazard fare as a story frame? Not well. Hazards to
health barely make an appearance in the newspaper stories we examined.
This is particularly surprising because, although the PCB contamination
has not posed a risk to drinking water, it does make the local fish
inedible. Wisconsin's fishing advisories warn anglers to avoid eating
most of the fish that live in the Sheboygan River downstream from the
Tecumseh plant. In fact, the list of inedible fish from this waterway
longer than similar lists for any other body of water in Wisconsin. As
environmental engineer Kim Bro of the Wisconsin Division of Health
describes it, the advisories for the Sheboygan River area say "don't eat
any of the resident species, even the little ones.'
It is possible that media stories attended to the issue of health
hazards earlier in the life of the river and harbor saga. Former Press
reporter Kurt Mueller recalled that his early stories indeed noted that a
risk to health was present; he remembers hearing and using phrases such as
•PCBs as suspected carcinogens' and 'PCBs, thought to cause cancer." But
both he and current reporter Barry Ginter now define the health risk theme
as "old news."
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Mueller argued that later stories do not have the space to rehash in-
formation that has already been presented. He also worried that readers
would no longer care about the health dimension of the issue at some
point.
Ginter, who himself enjoys catching and eating fish from local wa-
ters, said he and his editor assume that most readers are already aware of
the health risks. He admitted that he talks to few general readers but
noted that the charter captains with whom he deals seem "highly knowledge-
able" about the risks.
Another reason for the absence of a health risk frame in newspaper
coverage during the late 1980s may be that sources did not emphasize it.
The other two case studies have shown that stories are often driven by
events and that such stories adopt the emphases of the events they cover.
In the case of the Sheboygan River and Harbor site, although EPA and other-
entities staged public meetings at intervals, they did not emphasize
health risks at those meetings. Division of Health official Kim Bro noted
that state health officials have attended all these meetings in Sheboygan
since 1989 but did not push health risk information. Officials assumed,
said Bro, that residents had been wrestling for so many years with the
knowledge of PCB contamination in the river that they likely were already
well informed about the risks.
Although health risks did not often materialize in the newspaper sto-
ries during the eight-year span we studied, each newspaper did manage to
publish one startling health story...and not the same one at that. The
Sheboygan Falls News ran a press release from Sen. Robert Kasten in 1984
in which Kasten pointed to a published study indicating that infants of
mothers who ate PCB-contaminated fish from Lake Michigan had lower birth
weight, smaller head circumference and abnormal physical responses. Kas-
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ten used the information as a springboard to report that he was leadir
an initiative in congress" to introduce a bill that would help coordinate
efforts among various governmental bodies to manage the Great Lakes.
The Sheboygan Press, on the other hand, weighed in with an Associated
Press story in 1991 in which researchers suggested the possibility of a
link between a cluster of Lou Gehrig's Disease cases in Manitowoc County
and eating PCB-laden fish from Lake Michigan. Three of the six sufferers
reported eating fresh fish from the lake at least three times a week.
Both stories were relatively brief and contained few details about
how the studies were done. Further, neither newspaper appears to have
followed up on its story by seeking conflicting or corroborating informa-
tion.
what was the nature of. the relationships between -journalists and
sources? As in the other two case studies, they seemed generally
*
uncritical.
Did newspaper resources make a difference ,in extent of_ coverage?
Yes. As in the Better Brite case study, the two newspapers here vary
dramatically in the resources they can bring to bear on topics such as a
Superfund site. The Sheboygan Press, while relatively small for a daily
newspaper, still fielded a full-time specialty reporter who covered the
Superfund sites for years. Both the former and the current outdoor re-
porter followed the issues systematically and were occasionally given
space for longer stories. A careful reading of Sheboygan Press stories
over the years .would yield a great deal of information about the disposi-
tion of the Superfund sites, as well as detailed stories about efforts to
begin restocking the river with sport fish.
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The Sheboygan Falls News, on the other hand, has a scaff of one. Her
typical day involves seeking news at the police department and at city
hall, taking ftumerous phone calls from residents with items for the next
issue and then spending hours doing typesetting and pasteup. In-depth
coverage of any topic is out, says editor/reporter/layout person Sandra
Kimball.
And given her choice of many possible stories, the Superfund sites do
not rank high on her list. For one thing, she says, "I'm not an environ-
mental reporter." For another, she feels that Sheboygan Falls residents
are not interested in the sites. She recalls getting phone calls from
readers upset about other issues, such as the town's recent need to create
several temporary one-way streets to accommodate the repair of a bridge.
But no one calls about PCBs in the Sheboygan River.
She is right when she indicates that the News pays little attention
to the Superfund sites. The newspaper contains remarkably few stories on
the topic despite the presence, within the city limits, of the company
taking primary responsibility for contaminating the river with PCBs.
Kimball writes when she gets press releases or other types of information
from Tecumseh or the EPA. But she makes no effort to follow the story or
even to see for herself what is going on. For example, Tecumseh and EPA
built a facility on company property to experiment with biological
degradation of PCBs. Kimball says she has never visited it, although it
is within walking distance of the newspaper office.
Did the nature of_ the communities influence newspaper coverage?
Again, yes. But while Sheboygan and Sheboygan Falls differ rather
dramatically in size, they both seem structurally homogeneous. And that
level of homogeneity meant that the newspaper in each community was
constrained to operate within certain supportive themes.
-------
Sar.ira Ki.TJoall of The Sheboygan Palls News, for example, defined the
mission of her newspaper as concentrating on local but supportive news.^
Residents "want their kids' pictures' in the newspaper, she said. They
appreciate an emphasis on feature stories, not on critical reporting.
News is what someone brings to the newspaper office and asks to have
placed in the next issue, not something dug out of officials' garbage cans
late at night. Such a newspaper finds ignoring Superfund sites not only
an easy task but a legitimate one.
while the Sheboygan Press did not ignore the two Superfund sites in
its coverage area -- on the contrary, it has covered them quite systemat-
ically -- it, too, is constrained by the social structure of the communi-
ty. In this case, that structure promotes making sense of things such as
environmental contamination as economic issues. A focus on how these
problems influence the economic wellbeing of the community allows detailed
discussion of PCB-contaminated fish, for example, but primarily as a
factor having a negative impact on the sport fishing industry rather thw.«-
as a health risk.
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
This study of media coverage of three Superfund sites has yielded
what to us seem provocative findings. We discuss some of the general pat-
terns of findings here, although we caution the reader once again to be
aware that we base these conclusions on a sample of three sites.
When we began these case studies, we had a rather stereotypical no-
tion of what we would encounter. We expected to find outraged communities
whose newspapers maintained that sense of outrage by focussing heavily on
the health hazards posed by the Superfund sites. Those patterns emerged,
for example, in Krimsky and Plough's analysis of media coverage of, and
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puo-ic reaction to, a Superfund site in Massachusetts (Krimsky and Plcugr.,
1983). However, we found nothing of the kind. In all three cases, commu-
nities seemea concerned but not overly worried about the sites and the
risks they posed. Newspaper coverage reflected the chain of events that
takes place in the course of most Superfund site designations and cleanups
but located those events within a meaning framework that encouraged read-
ers to interpret them and the major actors -- EPA, Wisconsin Department of
Natural Resources, Wisconsin Division of Health -- as responsible and
rational. Most remarkably, discussion of health hazards was so minimal as
to constitute an almost trivial aspect of media coverage.
In fact, the single most important message that came out of these
three case studies for us was that, for the mass media, Superfund sites
are not risk stories. They are not primarily -- or even substantively --
stories about risks to health. Rather, they are sagas about solving com-
munity problems. In our case studies, those sagas were constituted in
newspaper text as either political or economic tales.
The dearth of risk information that we-found in these case studies is
consonant with a number of earlier studies, which reported that media
stories about risky situations usually devote little space to a discussion
of the risk itself (see, for example, Sandman, Sachsman, Greenberg and
Gochfeld, 1987; Singer and Endreny, 1987). What makes this analysis a bit
different is that (1) we are able to track the ebb and flow of the risk
frame over the course of years for the same issue, and (2) we are
interested not only in noting the absence of a health risk focus in these
Superfund stories but also in explaining why that dimension is so rare.
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SOIPS cricics would argue chat the other-than-.-isk frameworks we foi-d
do not constitute changes in meaning at all, that Superfund sites have
always been overwhelmingly political rather than health entities. But
given that the sites are established at least in part because they consti-
tute health risks, we still think it is important to question why media
coverage of at least the three sites we studied so routinely ignored the
health risk dimensions. Here are a number of possible explanations:
o Superfund sites remain "news" for years, probably decades. For
journalists, this lengthy period looms as a featureless plain
pockmarked by intermittent events such as public hearings or press
releases. Such an amorphous landscape is problematic for an ocupa-
tion that concentrates on representing reality as something con-
crete that happened "today" or will happen "tomorrow." As they work
to negotiate that landscape, newspapers and their reporters lose
sight of the big picture. Instead, they concentrate on accurat<
representing the cross-section of reality that a single event such
as a hearing offers up. And because the bulk of the life of a Su-
perfund site deals with the resolution of the problem, so does the
bulk of media coverage.
o Exacerbating the difficulties of covering issues that take years to
be resolved are assumptions that reporters make about their read-
ers. Journalists tacitly assume that their readers have a feel of
the evolution of an issue and that those readers, thus, will bridle
if they are fed "old news." "Old news' is information that was de-
fined as new and worthy of note earlier in the lifespan of an is-
sue. Once articulated, such information is then assumed to be part
of the knowledge that readers will bring to bear on later stories.
Thus, a discussion of the health risks posed by a Superfund site
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may be ar. important component of early stories but may be omitted
purposely from later ones. The health risk frame, then, may be a
feature of Superfund coverage only at the earliest stages of the
issue.
Another audience assumption that works against the inclusion
of detail in stories is: In areas where more than one newspaper is
available, readers will use those multiple publications in a
complementary fashion. This assumption allows a newspaper to avoid
taking responsibility for being comprehensive by asserting that
residents can glean a detailed accounting from another -- usually
larger -- outlet. The editor of the weekly newspaper in Sheboygan
Falls, for example, argued that most of her readers subscribe to
the larger daily in Sheboygan just a few miles away and would
encounter substantial coverage there of the Sheboygan River and
Harbor Superfund site.
o Risk to health recurs as a frame across the lifespan of a Superfund
site only to the extent that sources keep tugging it onto the media
agenda. Given the event orientation of media, it appears that if
sources highlight risks to health in a formal setting, such as a
public hearing, the media will readily adopt that frame of refer-
ence in their stories. Abundant research on risk and other types
of stories has demonstrated journalists' reliance on official
sources for their interpretive frames (for one of the better
discussions of this phenomenon, see Fishman, 1980). But officials
are not the only ones who can achieve this. Perhaps the most
influential creators of hazard frames are residents. In one of our
case studies — Better Brite -- one worried resident was able to
keep health risks a dominant element of coverage by continuing to
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speak out on the topic over the years. We wonder if citizen
efforts might not be powerful predictors of media attention to c
health dimension of Superfund sites.
o Within these three case studies, availability of newspaper re-
sources had no influence on maintenance of a health risk frame.
Newspapers with the resources to field specialty reporters, for ex-
ample, did produce a greater quantity of stories, and those sto-
ries, in our judgment, afforded readers a far more detailed
understanding of the events that took place within the Superfund
site at hand. But the specialty reporters we encountered in these
case studies were no more likely to feature the health aspects of
their sites than were other kinds of reporters.
o Finally, the nature of the community in which a newspaper was
embedded seemed to play a crucial role in defining the nature of
Superfund coverage. In some cases -- as with the two weekly nevU
papers we examined -- community structure may have encouraged re-
porters and editors to downplay coverage of the Superfund sites
altogether." Tichenor, Donohue and Olien argue that newspapers in
homogeneous communities are part of the community power base and
thus work hard to frame problematic happenings as nonthreatening.
One way to do that is to ignore the issue entirely. In lieu of
that, a newspaper may frame the issue as a problem that is being
solved handily by officials, in other words, as something that is,
not a problem at all! In either case, level of hazard would get
very short shrift.
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rare
Communities also may play a role in establishing the framework
within which an issue is discussed. That was very much the case
for twu of the case studies, National Presto and the Sheboygan
River and Harbor site. The lengthy and, apparently, contentious
relationship among the communities of Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls
and the township of Hallie worked to give meaning to the Superfund
site as a territorial issue. The health hazards represented at the
site became relevant to townspeople and journalists only to the ex-
tent that they lent credence to motives ascribed to the actions of
any single community as it "poached" on another.
Similarly, the Sheboygan River and Harbor site quickly evolved
into an economic issue for residents of Sheboygan and for the She-
boygan Press. Within that context, health hazards were transform-
ed. PCBs.in fish became problems for the health of the sport fish-
ing industry rather than potential hazards to the health of
individuals. Heavy metals embedded in sediments in the Sheboygan
Harbor became roadblocks to dredging rather than health threats.
If these factors are indeed at work, they suggest that some attri-
butes of media coverage of Superfund sites vary little across media organ-
izations but that others are quite situational. The production-driven
behaviors of journalists, for example, may mandate the kind of universal
reliance on events and the relatively uncritical acceptance of 'official*
sources that we saw in these three case studies. On the other hand, the
role of communities in establishing the framework within which an issue is
given meaning suggests that one must be wary of assuming that one frame
fits all.
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CHAPTER FOUR:
TOXICS RELEASE INVENTORY (TRI) CASE STUDY
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Introduction
In this chapter we again use content analysis to examine the
influence tflat an environmental group's press release, and some related
public information activity, had on newspaper publication of the results
of a report the group prepared on toxic releases from industries in the
Midwest. Our analysis indicates how the press release, in combination
with the structure of the community, affected news coverage of this topic
among 373 midwestern daily newspapers.
Toxics Release Inventory
Because of a 1986 federal law, the Superfund Amendments and Reauthor-
ization Act (SARA), the public has access to information about the re-
lease, storage, and possible health effects of toxic chemicals in their
communities. Part of this law requires manufacturers in a variety of in-
dustries to report annually the amount of hazardous chemicals they have
released into the environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) gathers this information and makes it publicly available through a
national computerized database termed the "Toxics Release Inventory"
(TRI).
SARA and TRI provide a base of data from which news organizations can
generate stories about local and national toxic releases, their health
risks, and the extent to which local and national industries are complying
with the law (Environmental Health Center, 1989).
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Inform, Inc., Information Campaign
In July 1991, a non-profic environmental research group called ":
form, Inc.,"*based in New York, issued a report entitled Toxic Clusters:
Patterns of. Pollution in the Midwest, based on its examination of TRI data
(Inform Inc., 1991) .
The Toxic Clusters report indicated that industries in seven midwest -
ern states -- Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wis-
consin -- are responsible for a disproportionately large amount of the
toxic wastes released in the United States. The report provided separate
lists that named the "Top 20" counties in the Midwest that are high in
specific forms of pollution (e.g., toxics released into the air, into
surface water), as well as a list of the 20 counties that generate the
most toxic waste overall. Each of the seven states is represented on at
least one list. The report also provided detail about the types of
industries and contaminants involved, as well as TRI data for each COL
in the seven-state region.
To announce its findings and inaugurate publication of Toxic Clus-
ters, Inform, Inc., conducted news conferences in late July in communities
located in three of the 'Top 20" counties (Whiting, Indiana; Detroit,
Michigan; and Green Bay, Wisconsin). Copies of the report were available
at the news conferences, as well as from the group's national headquar-
ters.
About a week prior to the news conferences, Inform, Inc., sent press
kits to a couple of hundred television, radio, and newspaper reporters in
the seven-state region, and to the various state press (wire) service
bureaus, which then transmitted stories about the report to their client
news media. Included in the press kit were a "media advisory" announcing
the nearest news conference, a news release, and various fact sheets.
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three-page news release summarized some of the broader findings of the
Toxic Clusters report but was not localized beyond mention of the top-five
polluting counties [4.1] and contained no health risk information. Fact
sheets included background information about the Toxics Release Inventory
and some known health effects of a handful of the more commonly released
toxic chemicals in the Midwest. Fact sheets also gave more detailed in-
formation about toxic releases in three states (Indiana, Michigan, and
Wisconsin, where press conferences were being held) and provided some in-
formation about releases in the most polluted counties. Copies of the
full Toxic Clusters report were not included in the press kits.
The public information activities surrounding the Toxic Clusters re-
port offer an opportunity to observe the relationship of the press kit to
media coverage of the report's findings.
Given the central social and economic roles that industries can play
in some communities, especially smaller ones, we also wanted to examine
the influences of community structural variables, in particular community
pluralism and reliance on manufacturing, on press coverage of these toxic
releases from industry.
Information Subsidies
Our first research question is: What is the relationship of sending
newspapers the Inform, Inc., press kit to newspaper coverage of the Toxic
Clusters report?
Gandy (1982) suggests that news releases, press kits, news confer-
ences, and similar forms of public relations activities can be seen as
[4.1] Counties that are highest in the Midwest in overall toxic releases
are: Lake County (Gary and Hammond), Indiana; Wayne County
(Detroit), Michigan; Cook County (Chicago), Illinois; Allen County
(Lima), Ohio; and St. Clair County (East St. Louis), Illinois.
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Page 1.6
11 information subsidies" that citizen groups, businesses, government
agencies, and other news sources make to news media and other communi<_a-
tion channels. These subsidies, he claims, are "an attempt to produce
influence over the actions of others by controlling their access to and
use of information relevant to those actions" [p. 61]. Gandy proposes
that the price of obtaining information affects its use. Those who
"subsidize" the news media by disseminating to them information that they
can use quickly and inexpensively increase the likelihood that the media
will use that information. In contrast, it is much more expensive for the
news media to assign staff members to "dig" for news. "The notion of in-
formation subsidies," Gandy says, "is based on a recognition that the
price of information may be reduced selectively by interested parties in
order to increase the consumption of preferred information" [p. 30]. As
Turk (1986) describes:
"These public relations information subsidies may not be the
preferred source of information for journalists, who perhaps
wish they could personally gather the facts and figures of the
environment they report rather than relying upon others.... But
information subsidies from public relations practitioners are
used by journalists. And when there's consumption of an organi-
zation's message by the media -- when the organization's infor-
mation is made a part of the media's agenda and content -- the
organization stands at least a chance of influencing the public
agenda" [pps. 4-5]. [4.2]
Various studies (e.g.. Hale, 1978; Martin and Singletary, 1981;
Sachsman, 1976; Theus, 1988) have demonstrated that news releases and
other forms of public information activities affect news media content,
[4.2] Under variousconditions,thenewsmediamightinfluencewhat
audiences perceive as important issues by stressing those issues in
news content (McCombs and Shaw, 1972; Rogers and Dearing, 1987).
This "agenda-setting" influence could affect public opinion by
defining for the public those attributes of a problem that are most
important to consider (lyengar and Kinder, 1987). Information,
subsidies and other influences that affect the ways the media stress
or downplay information might indirectly affect audience agendas by
affecting media agendas.
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i-eluding tr.e kinds of information that are stressed by the news media
(Turk, 1S86). However, news releases will not be very successful unless
the reportet--who receives the news release determines the information to
be "newsworthy" --in particular, to have a local angle, to be timely, and
to have impact on the public (Turk, 1986).
Inform, Inc., may have established "timeliness" through the news
conferences it held. (Toxic Clusters had a 1991 publication date, even
though the TRI data were from 1988, the latest available when Inform,
Inc., prepared the report.) Although the press kit provided only limited
localization of the toxic release information, the separately available
Toxic Clusters report contained data reporters could use to find a local
angle for any county in the seven states. One of the more direct impacts
of this report on the public'would be via information about health risks
from the toxic releases. There was little of this information in the
press kit. We will examine whether news organizations that received the
press kit would be more likely to publish a story about Toxic Clusters
than news organizations that did not receive the kit, and whether receipt
of the press kit had any direct or indirect relationship to aspects of
story and headline content.
Community Structure
Our second research question is: What is the relationship of commu-
nity structure (pluralism and reliance on manufacturing) to news coverage
of the Toxic Clusters report?
Based on the conflict/consensus theory, we expect that news media in
more pluralistic communities would be more likely than papers in less
pluralistic communities to contain information about the Toxic Clusters
report, because this information could, at minimum, raise local conflict.
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Page ICo
we would also expect to find much the same patterns in regard to risk
tent and localization of the toxic release information. We would also =^
pect that news media in less pluralistic communities would be more sensi-
tive than papers in more pluralistic communities to reliance of their com-
munity on manufacturing.
Information such as that in the Toxic Clusters report, which concerns
potentially deleterious environmental and health effects of manufacturing,
could raise conflict in local communities reliant on manufacturing, even
if the story is not localized. Localizing the information and signalling
a health risk could make the story even more sensitive.
We expect to find that reliance on manufacturing produces only small
differences in newspaper publication of the Inform, Inc., report in more
pluralistic communities. If anything, the "conflict" nature of the press
in more pluralistic communities might increase the likelihood of running
the story as reliance on manufacturing increases. However, we expect
that, in less pluralistic communities, the greater the reliance on manu-
facturing, the less likely the news media would publish information about
the report.
METHOD
A professional clipping service searched the 373 daily newspapers in
the seven-state region that subscribe to the major U.S. press service, the
Associated Press, which transmitted stories about the Inform, Inc., re-
port. (4.3] All.of these papers would therefore have received usable wire
[4.3] Other stories basedontheToxicsReleaseInventoryhavebeen
published by various news media over time, and further research
could examine whether broader patterns of TRI coverage are affected
by the community structure and information subsidies variables we
examine in this case study. Our analysis of necessity is restricted
to examining news articles relating to the Toxic Clusters report.
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stones about the report, and indeed A? stories about Toxic Clusters were
published by newspapers in each of the seven states. (United Press Inter-
national and the Chicago Tribune Service also transmitted their versions
of the story.) Papers were monitored from July 23, 1991, when Inform,
Inc., sent out its press kits, to August 31, 1991, about a month after the
organization released the Toxic Clusters report and held three news
conferences.
Dependent Variables
To define press coverage of the Toxic Clusters report, our dependent
measures include whether or not newspapers published information about the
report, as well as four variables based on analysis of published items:
whether the paper's own staff generated story content, whether the story
contained localized information about toxic releases, whether the headline
was similarly localized, and whether the headline contained risk informa-
tion. We included headlines because headlines offer newspapers the oppor-
tunity to stress, in a handful of words, what they deem to be the most im-
portant aspect of the story for readers. A lot of local news judgment is
therefore reflected in headlines, even those written for wire stories.
Forces that affect news judgment would affect headlines as well.
Just about all of the published items based on the Toxic Clusters
report contained some reference to health risks, if only because of use of
the term "toxic" from the title of the report. The number of items that
asserted the presence of a risk of contracting a specific malady because
of exposure to the toxins was too small to analyze statistically.
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Publication. Because only a small portion c_~ newspapers publish
more than one item about the Toxic Clusters report, we defined public^,
of the story in terms of whether or not the paper ran at least one item
based on Toxic Clusters. Eighty-nine (24%) of the 373 papers ran at least
one item during the period of analysis, mostly between July 30 and August
1.
Because the unit of analysis in this study is the individual daily
newspaper, measurement of the content variables that follow (staff
generation of content, item localization, headline localization, and use
of a risk headline) is based on the total coverage these papers gave Toxic
Clusters during the period of observation. Intercoder reliability was
better than .85 for each of the four content variables.[4.4] Note that, in
contrast to our general content analysis, the staff generation variable is
used as a dependent variable in part of this analysis. In the few cases
where the paper published more than one item, a given content vanabL
coded as present if at least one item had the characteristic (e.g., if at
least one item was localized, the newspaper's coverage was coded as
localized).
[4.4] Because only two coders were available to determine intercoder
reliability for this portion of the study, we used proportion of
agreement measures and Scott's (1955) pi rather than the Krippendorf
(1980) procedure to estimate reliability in the TRI case study.
Scott's pi, like Krippendorf's procedure, adjusts the results to
account for the influence of chance agreement between the two
coders. To estimate reliability, 15 items were sampled from the set
of stories and the content coded by two independent observers, whose
ratings for each of the content variables were then compared
story-by-story to ascertain the proportion of agreement between the
two coders. For example, the two coders agreed on the 'item
localization* code for 14 of the 15 items (93% agreement, Scott's pi
= .86), and were in total agreement (Scott's pi .= 1.0) for the other
three content variables (staff generation, headline localization,
and use of a risk headline). Interested readers should refer to
original articles by Krippendorf (1980) and Scott (1955) for an
explanation of the formulas used. Citations are included in the
References section of this report.
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Staff Generation. Based on bylines and other indicators of story
origins [4.5], we coded news stories and editorials originating from the
newspaper stfaff, as compared to those labeled as wire service stories, as
"scaff-generated." No newspaper simply printed the Inform, Inc., news
release verbacim.
Localization of Item. Coverage was considered localized if the text
contained information about the status (e.g., amount or ranking) of toxic
releases for the newspaper's own county or metropolitan area.
Localization of Headline. A headline was considered localized if it
applied the report's findings to the paper's own county or metropolitan
area.
Risk Headline. A headline was considered a risk headline [4.6] if
the main headline contained a term such as "toxic" that strongly signalled
a possible threat to health. For example, the headlines "Ohio rife with
toxicity; small towns suffer, too" and "Lake County called toxic center"
were considered to be risk headlines, whereas "Lake County, ind., tops
list of waste producers" was not.
[4.5] For example, items that were labeled as 'staff correspondence" were
coded as staff generated. So were editorial page editorials, unless
they were attributed to non-staffers (e.g., from a wire service or
syndicate). A story that the newspaper labeled as a mix of staff
and wire copy was coded as staff generated, because it involved some
local reportorial information gathering.
[4.6] In our coding system, we needed to discern headlines that were
relatively strong and unambiguous in regard to the existence of a
health threat. Our risk headline coding in this case study is
consistent with the coding system for risk headlines used in the
general content analysis in Chapter Two in that we used a list of
"risk signals* that included the word 'toxic' but not "waste' or
"pollution." (See APPENDIX C, Section CC.) The latter terms appeared
in nearly all of the headlines in this case study that did not use
"toxic' or some other risk signal, but do not seem to stress a
threat to human health as strongly as do the risk signal terms.
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Independent Variables
The following measures were included in this analysis so we coul<
determine their apparent influence on press coverage of the Toxic Clusters
report:
Sent Press Kit. Based on information we received from Inform, Inc..
we coded whether or not each daily newspaper was sent a press kit re-
garding the Toxic Clusters report. Kits were sent to 31 (8%) of the daily
newspapers in our analysis.
Community Pluralism. To represent community pluralism, we ranked
each of the 363 communities in this study in terms of its 1990 population
and in terms of the proportion of its school children (in grades kinder-
garten through 12) who are minorities or in private schools, based on data
we gathered from each state's department of education. SMSA data were
used instead of community data if the paper was in the central city of an
SMSA. We then summed these two rankings to give each community a pluq
ism score. The scale has an acceptable level of reliability (Cronbach s
alpha) of .77. [4.7]
Community Reliance on Manufacturing. The importance of this
community variable to our assessment of media coverage of Toxic Clusters
means that we will be using community reliance on manufacturing as an
independent variable for part of the analysis. As we did for the general
content analysis in Chapter Two, we divided the number of people employed
[4.7] Based on the previous research intocommunitypluralism,Dunwoody
and Rossow (1989) indexed pluralism via the two measures used in
this analysis and by additional measures of community businesses per
capita, number of religious denominations, and number of voluntary
social service organizations. Their latter two measures were
unavailable to us across all the 363 communities in this analysis.
Data on community businesses per capita were gathered across all
communities in the study, but this variable was not included in the
pluralism index because it lowered scale reliability (Cronbach's
alpha) to an unacceptable .34.
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.-age _.j
by manufacturers in each newspaper's county (Census of_ Manufactures, 1590^
by the population of the county. (SMSA data were used instead of county
data whenever newspapers were in central cities of SMSAs.)
Control Variables (Covariates)
Along with community reliance on manufacturing and staff generation
of content, the other essential community and media organizational control
variables identified in Chapter One were included in this analysis. We
added two other variables -- the "Top 20" status of the newspaper's county
and the newspaper's proximity to one of the Inform, Inc., news conferences
-- to help us assess the effects of the Inform, Inc., information cam-
paign.
•Top 20' County. While not as sensitive a measure of pollution as is
the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data from which it is derived, the In-
form, Inc., "Top 20" County designation was used to identify newspapers in
those areas with the highest levels of toxic releases in any category of
releases, including overall. Because the "Top 20" designation was used by
Inform, Inc., as a central part of its public information campaign about
Toxic Clusters, it seemed the most appropriate means of controlling for a
community being in the toxic spotlight.
Proximity to News Conferences. Because Inform, Inc., was not able to
supply us with information about which news media attended its three news
conferences, we had to measure access to these conferences indirectly by
giving the highest score (two) if the paper was in the same SMSA as a news
conference, a score of one to those papers in counties adjacent to these
SMSAs, and a zero to those papers farther away. These conferences
represent sources of further information about the Toxic Clusters report,
and an additional information subsidy.
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Pace 114
Toxic Releases per Industry. Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) da.,
each newspaper's county or SMSA (from Toxic Clusters) were divided by
number of industrial facilities in that county or SMSA (Census of. Manufac-
tures, 1990) .
Ownership of Newspaper. We used the same scale as we did in the gen-
eral content analysis in Chapter Two.
Reportorial News Staff Size. We used the Editor & Publisher (1991a)
International Yearbook to get data for two estimates of the size of the
editorial staff for each newspaper. One estimate is based on a formula
derived from newspaper circulation (Polich, 1974) . The other is based on
the number of editorial staffers voluntarily listed for each paper. We
combined the two measures into a single index with an acceptable level of
reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .86).
Environmental or Science Reporter on Staff. We measured this
variable according to whether or not each newspaper in the study had
included an environmental or science reporter in its staff listing in the
Editor & Publisher (1991a) International Yearbook.[4.8]
APPENDIX C shows the coding system that we used to examine press
coverage of the Toxic Clusters report.
RESULTS
Press Kit
Our first research question concerned the relationship of sending
newspapers the Inform, Inc., press kit to newspaper coverage of the Toxic
Clusters report.
[4.8] While the listing is an imperfect measure, it seems validated by the
fact that it correlates well (beta=.42, not shown in tables) with
editorial staff size, because specialization usually depends on
staffing.
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Publication and Staff Generation. When we adjust the results of our
analysis to account for the effects of our control variables, we find in
Table 4.1 that the press kit did appear to have some moderate effect on
whether or not a newspaper published an item about Toxic Clusters (epsilon
= .43-.27 = .16). Papers that received the press kit were somewhat more
likely than the rest of the papers to run a story. A rather intriguing
result is that the press kit also appears to have encouraged newspapers
that ran items to assign their own staff members to the stories or edit-
orials, instead of simply running one of the press service stories about
the Toxic Clusters report (epsilon = .51-.24 = .27). This suggests that
the most significant impact of the press kit on news coverage might have
been to mobilize local staff.[4.9]
Item localization. Localization of the stories appears to have been
affected only indirectly by the press kits, that is, only through their
apparent effects on local staff mobilization. The relationship of the
press kit to story localization is insignificant (epsilon = .35-.32 =
.03), whereas staff generation of the items bears a very strong relation-
ship (beta = .81) to localization.
\
In general, it appears that sending the press kit had some effect on
whether the paper published information about the Toxic Clusters report,
but its primary role seems to have been to encourage or facilitate the
papers to devote staff resources to the story. Once staff members were
assigned, they were more likely than the wire services to localize the
story, even if the paper were not in a "Top 20' county. This kind of re-
portorial enterprise probably included use of the fact sheets in the press
[4.9] The group of papers that ran an item about Toxic Clusters and was
sent a press kit is relatively small in number (15), but precision
is enhanced by the fact that the data are from a census and
therefore there is-no sampling error to consider.
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Page 116
Table 4.1
Effects of INFORM, inc.. Press Kit
on Use, Staff Generation, and Content of Newspaper Items
Based on Toxic Clusters Report
I Adjusted I
I Percentages I
Dependent Variable:
Ran Story
n=
Staff Generated
Localized Item
Localized Headline
Risk Headline
n=
Sent
Pres
No
27%
342
24%
35%
20%
65%
74
INFORM
;s Kit
Yes
43%
31 373
51%
32%
12%
34%
15 89
Significant
Covariates :
Proximity to News
Conference
Toxic Releases per
Industry
Top 20 County
Staff Size
Staff Generated
Localized Item
Staff Size
Interaction:
Pluralism x
Mfg. Reliance
Mfg. Reliance
Beta
.29
.24
.20
.20
.81
f f\
-.20
-.25
SPSS Manova was used to adjust percentages by the following control varia-
bles (covariates): community pluralism; community reliance on manufactur-
ing; interaction of these two preceding variables; toxic releases per in-
dustry; 'Top 20" status of county in toxic releases; newspaper ownership;
size of newspaper reportorial staff; presence of environmental or science
reporter on newspaper staff; proximity of newspaper to Toxic Clusters news
conference. Staff generation of content was included as a covariate for
analysis of the dependent variables of Localized Item, Localized Headline,
and Risk Headline. Localized Item was also included as a covariate in
analysis of the dependent variable of Localized Headline. Pluralism and
Manufacturing Reliance were each dichotomized and contrast-coded, and the
interaction term derived by multiplication.
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<:.-, procuring a copy of Che Toxic Clusters report, or phoning Inform,
Inc., for more information. (An Inform, Inc., spokesperson estimates that
they received, after the news conferences, about 50-75 phone calls from
reporters who wanted more information.) [4.10]
Headlines. We would expect that receipt of the press kit, which af-
fected the content of stories only indirectly through staff generation of
content, would affect headline content even less directly, because the
copy editors who usually write the headlines take their cues primarily
from the stories they receive from the wire or from staff reporters.
This pattern is evident in localization of headlines in regard to in-
dustrial releases. The relationship of the press kit to this localization
is insignificant (epsilon = .20-.12 = .08), but the relationship of story
localization to headline localization is, as might be expected, quite
strong (beta = .60). Thus, in the chain of events, receipt of the press
kit appears to encourage staff generation of copy, which produces greater
likelihood of localization of the story content regarding toxic releases,
which then increases the probability that the copy editor will localize
the headline.
While nearly all of the published items included some implication of
health risks, 56% of the papers used a risk headline. Paradoxically,
newspapers who received the press kit were less likely to include risk in
the headline than were papers who did not (epsilon = .65-.34 = .31). The
reason for this relationship is not clear.
Covariate relationships. As Table 4.1 shows, those newspapers that
ran the story were more likely to assign their own staff members to cover
[4.10] The wire service stories generally reflected the fact that the
Toxic Clusters report and related press kit concentrated on toxic
releases and provided little information about specific risks. The
wire service stories, however, were not simply copies of the
Inform, Inc., news release.
-------
the siory, instead of relying on wire service accounts, if they had
staffs (beta = .20), if the paper was located closer to one of the thi
news conferences (beta = .29), if the paper was in a 'Top 20" county (beta
= .20), or if individual local industries were, on the average, somewhat
•dirtier," that is, higher in toxic releases (beta = .24). Larger staff
size and proximity to news conferences, of course, make it easier for a
paper to devote personnel to cover the story. Papers in more "toxic"
communities (those with the highest levels of toxic releases and those
with dirtier individual industries) might have determined that the Toxic
Clusters story was prominent enough, or sensitive enough, to warrant
entrusting it to local staffers. The presence of an environmental or
science reporter on the news staff, however, does not appear to have
affected coverage of this story. It is not clear why papers with larger
staff sizes were less likely to localize the headline regarding releases
(beta=-.27).
Newspaper ownership structure bore no significant relationship to
coverage of the Toxic Clusters story when used as a covariate in this
analysis. The relationships of community structural variables to
newspaper composition of headlines will be explored in the next section.
Structural Variables
Our second research question concerned the relationship of community
pluralism and reliance on manufacturing to coverage of the Toxic Clusters
report.
Publication. The analysis of covariates in Table 4.1 had indicated
no significant linear relationship between either community structural
variable and a newspaper's likelihood of publishing the Toxic Clusters
story, and no significant interaction. To examine the second research
-------
question fur.her, we broke both structural variables into levels of
"high," "medium," and "low" for the analysis in Table 4.2.
The relationship between pluralism and publication is not signifi-
cant, as shown in the bottom row of percentages in Table 4.2 (epsilon =
.27-.22 = .05). Our other expectations were not confirmed either.
Instead, we found a curvilinear relationship between community reliance on
manufacturing and publishing information about the report, as shown in the
column of percentages on the right side of Table 4.2 (epsilon = .32-.18 =
.14). This pattern, in which publication is most likely in communities
with medium reliance on manufacturing, is found to some extent in all
three levels of pluralism, but most strongly (epsilon = .39-.19 = .20)
among high pluralism communities.
While the reason for this curvilinear relationship is not clear, it
is likely that other forces are interacting. Relevance of the Inform,
Inc., report to the community would generally increase with the communi-
ty's reliance on manufacturing. The report, however, would also be more
locally sensitive as manufacturing reliance increases, especially in
difficult economic times. Perhaps papers in communities with medium lev-
els of reliance on manufacturing find the story locally relevant but not
overly sensitive, and therefore were the most likely to publish the story.
Headlines. Table 4.1 showed no relationship of either community
structural variable to localization or staff generation of the item. The
relationship of pluralism and reliance on manufacturing to headline con-
tent is, however, a bit more dynamic. Risk headlines were somewhat less
likely to be found atop the Toxic Clusters story in communities more
reliant on manufacturing (beta = -.25 in Table 4.1), which may indicate
reluctance to spotlight a linkage between contamination from manufacturers
and health risks in communities more reliant on manufacturing. Headline
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Page 12C
Table 4.2
Proportion of Daily Newspapers
Publishing At Least One Story on Toxic Clusters Report
by Community Pluralism and Reliance on Manufacturing
Adjusted Percentages
[Except for Overall Total]
Community Pluralism;
Low Medium High Total
Manufacturing
Reliance: Low 16% 20% 19% 18%
n= [40] [42] [47] [129]
Medium 28% 28% 39% 32%
n= [36] [37] [46] [119]
High 22% 20% 24% 22%
n= [48] [46] [31] [125]
Total 22% 22% 27% 24%
n= [124] [125] [124] [373]
SPSS Manova was used to adjust percentages by the' following control va
bles (covariates): toxic releases per industry; "Top 20" status of county
in toxic releases; newspaper ownership; size of newspaper reportorial
staff; presence of environmental or science reporter on newspaper staff;
proximity of newspaper to Toxic Clusters news conference; whether news-
paper had been sent a Toxic Clusters press kit.
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localization of toxic release information is affected by an interaction
between pluralism and manufacturing reliance (beta = -.20 in Table 4.1).
Examination of cell data (not shown) indicates that headline localization
is the most likely in pluralistic communities that are less reliant on
manufacturing. Twenty percent of the 24 papers in that group ran a risk
headline, while the incidence in the other three pluralism x manufacturing
reliance groups is at or near zero (adjusted by the covariates). This
result may also suggest that the press' function to raise controversy in
more pluralistic areas may be tempered by some economic sensitivities.
CONCLUSION
Information Subsidies
The information subsidies model proposes that the "rule of least '
effort" guides the newsgathering behavior of journalists (Fishman, 1980;
Gandy, 1982). The results of this study provide general, albeit somewhat
mixed, support for that assertion. Specifically:
o Consistent with the information subsidies model, newspapers that were
sent the press kit were more likely to publish an item about the
Toxic Clusters report. None of the published items, however, were
verbatim versions of the Inform, Inc., news release.
o While most papers that ran the Toxic Clusters story indeed were
content to use a wire service version, which by and large reflected
the Inform, Inc., angle to the story, some papers went beyond this
easily available material to devote staff resources to covering the
story.[4.11] By making additional information about the report avail-
[4.11] The positive relationship of staff size to the assignment of a
local reporter to the story underscores the idea that the cost of
gathering information dictates much of news coverage, as the infor-
mation subsidies model proposes.
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Pace 122
able to various newspapers, primarily througn the use of press k:
and news conferences, Inform, Inc., appears to have encouraged some
of those papers to assign staffers to the story by making relevant
information easier for them to gather.
o Newspapers in communities that appear to have problems with high
overall levels of toxic industrial pollution, or that have "dirtier"
local industries, felt more compelled to have one of their own
staffers cover the Toxic Clusters story.
Therefore, local conditions might have prompted editors to entrust
the story to one of their own reporters. Yet, to a large extent, the
"rule of least effort" still seemed to apply. Reporters motivated to get
\
this "local angle" could rely on the Inform, Inc., materials to provide,
somewhat easily, a listing of the "Top 20" toxic counties and TRI data for
each county in the Midwest. (Public information efforts might have be
more successful, in terms of story publication, if press kits had cont
ed fact sheets with specific TRI data for local counties, enabling
reporters to localize the story even more easily.) However, information
about health risks from the local toxic releases -- which represents the
direct impact of these pollutants on the public, and which is often diffi-
cult for reporters to gather and interpret for audiences -- was generally
absent from the stories.[4.12] Risk information was also relatively absent
from the Toxic Clusters report.
[4.12] Singer and Endreny (1993) found that media commonly report on "the
serious outcomes associated with a particular instance of a hazard"
(p. 101), such as a person dying from toxic shock, but rarely
provide more general or comprehensive information about hazards and
associated risks, such as long-term consequences from exposure to a
hazard or risk-benefit tradeoffs.
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Community Structure
Although community pluralism and reliance on manufacturing did not
have the kinds of relationships to press coverage of Toxic Clusters that
we originally anticipated, the results of the study still demonstrate the
need to take community structural variables into account when planning
public information efforts concerned with risk from environmental contami-
nants. Between the two community structural variables, reliance on
manufacturing seemed to play a stronger role in affecting news coverage
than did pluralism. However, because this analysis involved only communi-
ties with daily newspapers, the smallest communities with weekly newspa-
pers were not included. This truncated the variance in the community
pluralism measure and probably weakened its ability to show an effect.
Based on the "conflict/consensus" model of Tichenor, Donohue and
Olien (1980), we expected to find that community reliance on manufacturing
would affect coverage of the Toxic Clusters report primarily in less plur-
alistic communities, where press deference to local economic and political
powers would likely be higher than in more pluralistic communities. The
patterns of coverage we found, however, were somewhat more complex, yet
still reflective of interworkings of the structural variables. Specifi-
cally:
o Reliance of communities on manufacturing, sometimes combined with
community pluralism, affected treatment of the Toxic Clusters story
in those decision domains that most filter and frame the news for lo-
cal readers -- whether to run the story at all and what to stress in
the headline.
-------
o Publication of the story was most likely in communities with medi—
levels of reliance on manufacturing, regardless of level of plura
ism. Tftfe result suggests that the story might have been deemed not
relevant in communities with low reliance on manufacturing and too
sensitive in communities very reliant on manufacturing, even if the
community was high in pluralism. Sensitivity to local economic
conditions may, therefore, dampen the press' "watchdog" function even
in more pluralistic communities, especially when economic times are
tough, and affect news media use of subsidized information relevant
to potentially contentious local problems.
o Local sensitivity to the report may also be indicated by differences
in headline treatments, because spotlighting of health risks from
industrial releases in headlines varied inversely with community
reliance on manufacturing, regardless of community pluralism.
Localization of the headline in regard to industrial releases was
most likely in those high-pluralism communities that were less
reliant on manufacturing.
These patterns suggest that information about health risks and
related problems stemming from local contaminators in a community is very
sensitive information and is treated carefully by local media. In
particular, daily newspaper use of information subsidies seems to be
affected by a cost-benefit tradeoff that takes into account the ease of
gathering the information as well as anticipation of the effects of that
information on the social and economic workings of the community of which
the paper is a part.
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Pace 125
Public information efforts need to be aware of, and work with, these
community-based forces and sensitivities. In particular, it appears that
an effective information program would make it as easy as possible for
local editors and reporters to customize information about local environ-
mental contamination for their communities.
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CHAPTER FIVE:
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
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Introduction
Because people tend to rely on mass media for information about
health risks, we believed it important to investigate forces that affect
the way local media portray health risks stemming from industries and
other sources of environmental contamination in the local community. Res-
idents of smaller communities and of communities highly reliant on manu-
facturing may not get, through their local mass media, much information
about health risks from local sources of pollution.
Research Summary
Our case studies and content analyses were devoted to exploring the
effects of community structure, in particular community pluralism, on the
ways local newspapers portray health risks from environmental contami-
nants. Based on research into community pluralism and the mass media by
Tichenor, Donohue and Olien (1980), we expected that news media in more
pluralistic (usually larger) comunities would be more likely to publish
information related to conflict among segments of the community than would
news media in less pluralistic (usually smaller) communities, and would be
more likely to publish sensitive information that could raise conflict in
the community. News media in less pluralistic communities usually serve
to build local consensus rather than reporting on or fostering local
conflict over sensitive issues.
Health risk information, we proposed, could serve as a catalyst for
local conflict if it effectively "links' environmental contamination from
a local polluter (e.g., an industry) with hazards to the health of members
of the local community. Therefore, this kind of risk information would be
sensitive, particularly in less pluralistic communities, and would be
controlled in the interest of controlling local conflict.
-------
Based on the research on community structure and our conception
how risk information might be differentially configured in different com-
munities, our general research question was:
What is the effect of community structure, in particular commu-
nity pluralism, on press coverage of health risks from local
sources of environmental contamination?
To answer our research question, we conducted a three-part, mul-
ti-method research project: (1) a quantitative general content analysis
of framing and of presentation of risk information about local environ-
mental contamination in 16 communities (19 newspapers) primarily in
Wisconsin; (2) three qualitative case studies that explore the historical
development of media framing and presentation of risk information from
three Superfund sites in Wisconsin; and (3) a quantitative content analy-
sis of the ways that daily newspapers in the' Midwest covered a report by
an environmental interest group about toxic pollution in seven midwest
states, based on data the group gathered from the Toxics Release Inver.—„
(TRI).
Although our results at times were mixed, in general we found that
community structure does affect risk communication. In particular, media
in less pluralistic communities tend to downplay information about health
risks to members of the community from local contaminators. Our content
analysis of 19 newspapers found that papers in less pluralistic communi-
ties tend not to associate environmental contamination from local sources
with human health risks, and tend to play up the idea that contamination
problems are being solved. Much the same patterns were generally found in
our Superfund case studies, even though local health risks from these
sites were, somewhat surprisingly, not a significant component of media
coverage of these Superfund sites. Similarly, not much risk information
was included in press stories about the Toxic Clusters report on toxic
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Page 125
leases from industry in the Midwest, which itself did not include much
health risk information. However, headlines signalling health risks from
industrial releases were less prevalent in communities more reliant on
manufacturing, and the headlines were more likely to stress local toxic
releases if community pluralism was high and reliance on manufacturing was
low. Papers in communities highly reliant on manufacturing seemed reluc-
tant to publish information about contamination from local manufacturers,
at least as that contamination was portrayed in the Toxic Clusters report
and the attendant information campaign. Newspapers in communities with
"dirtier" local industries, or with high levels of TRI releases, were more
likely than other newspapers to entrust coverage of Toxic Clusters to
their own reporters.
These findings prompt a number of recommendations for risk communi-
cators .
Recommendations
Designers of risk communication programs should, in effect, consider
the information needs of two "audiences": (1) selected target groups (or
segmented publics) and (2) the media organizations serving those publics.
In neither case does one message fit all. While research is needed to in-
vestigate the ways that people in large versus small communities use risk.
information from the mass media, our study does provide some insights into
the community forces that affect the ways mass media filter and frame risk
information for local audiences. Recommendations about how to present in-
formation to reporters in varying community circumstances still require
confirming research.
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Community Structure. Our results- indicate that the distribution
power in a community influences that way the newspapers there (and perhaps
other types of media) select and use information about risks from indus-
cnes and other potential sources of environmental contamination. We
suggest that:
o Public information efforts in regard to Superfund sites and other
sources of toxic contamination should take community structure, in
/
particular community pluralism, into account: As Grunig and Hunt
(1984) observe, public relations strategies that may be effective in
metropolitan areas may be counter-productive in small, rural communi-
ties, and vice-versa.
o As a practical matter, the size of a community's population is a
reasonably good surrogate for community pluralism. The larger th
community, the more diverse it is and the more decentralized are
power groups.
o Community structure can have an impact on the interpretive strategy
that a newspaper uses to explain a risk and on the types of informa-
tion about the risk that the paper includes in news accounts:
'» In small communities, newspapers will be interested in maintaining
an image of the community as a good place where problems are read-
ily resolved and where people get along with one another. Thus,
they will usually welcome information couched in terms of how
local environmental problems are being solved. They will probably
be less welcoming of information that spotlights the notion that
members of the community are at risk from local sources of contam-
ination. It will be relatively hard to place "this is a local
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Page 131
problem" information in such outlets.
» In larger communities, newspapers will be more open to interpret-
ing an environmental hazard as a local problem and to presenting
information about risks from local sources of contamination.
» Even in larger communities, however, local media might find some
contamination issues to be sensitive. For example, newspapers
seem to be particularly careful about how they present information
about problems of. toxicity from industry if the community is
highly reliant on local manufacturing.
o The bottom line is that you might need to "tell the story" different-
ly depending on the kind of community, and perhaps work with local
news media in different ways:
» You may need to embed the same information (e.g., explanation of a
risk, of the cleanup process) in different contexts when working
with the news media in different communities, placing the informa-
tion in the context of a problem if the news medium is in a larger
community or stressing what is being done to solve the problem if
the news medium is in a smaller community. (See excerpts in Chap-
ter Two for examples of "problem frames' and "solution frames.")
» News media in smaller communities appear to be willing to publish
broader, feature-type "generic" stories about health risks from
environmental contaminants as long as they are not directly linked
to local sources of pollution. (See excerpts in Chapter Two for
examples of "generic" stories.) For news media in smaller communi-
ties, you might include in a news release or related materials
(e.g., fact sheets) a phone number or address that members of the
public could contact to get further information about what to do
-------
?ags Ij2
aoouc tne risks. News media in less pluralistic areas have b«
found co carry quite a bit of this kind of useful detail (Ross
and Wjnwoody, 1991), although editors may eliminate this kind of
"mobilizing information" from stories if they consider the story
to be controversial (Lemert, 1984).
» News media in larger communities seem to be interested in generic
stories about solutions to contamination problems that are being
tried elsewhere.
» When contamination issues are locally sensitive, news media will
probably prefer that their own staff members cover and craft as
much of the story as possible. Papers in larger communities tend
to have larger staffs to devote to such customized reporting.
Under these circumstances, your best strategy might be to make it
as easy as possible for local reporters to write their own sto-
ries. For example, The TRI (Toxic Clusters) case study showec
that a comprehensive press kit sent to
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rare 122
Other Factors for Consideration. Our research also discovered sone
other patterns of news coverage o£ risk information useful for risk commu-
nication program planners to know:
o In long-playing stories about contamination, risk information seems
to be regarded by journalists as more appropriate at some times than
at others. Our Superfund case studies found that information about
risks from local sites, while never very prevalent in the media, was
more a part of public dialogue concerning the sites in the earlier
stages of publicity. Risk information remained part of media cover-
age for a longer time only in De Pere, where a local citizen kept
raising her concerns about health effects on her family of the nearby
site. Otherwise, media coverage of the sites rapidly evolved to
media coverage of solving political or economic problems -- areas of
coverage that fit well into common journalistic newsgathering rou-
tines and'require little special expertise. A similar pattern was
found by Olien et. al. (1984) in their study of a power line siting
controversy in Minnesota.
o The inclusion of risk information in the mass media appears to be
highly "source-driven"; that is, reporters seem to be much more
likely to include risk information if it is given to them by a source
than to take the initiative to seek risk information from a source to
fill out a story or to update it for audiences. Based on the Toxic
Clusters case study, it appears that if sources do not provide much
risk information, neither, 'for the most part, will the media.
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Page 134
Methods. Our study generated some methodological recommendation:
well:
o Research that evaluates the effectiveness of messages about risk (or
any other topic) must include controls for coviariates--for other
variables that might confuse the picture. Laboratory experiments
typically control for these other variables through the design of the
study. In field studies outside the laboratory, however, researchers
must rule out the influence of these other variables so the results
of the study will not be misleading.
o There is considerable value in approaching a communication problem by
using a variety of research methods. Our content analyses and Super-
fund case studies yielded different types of data. The content
analyses found general patterns while the case studies provided
details. The case studies, with support from the broader content
analyses, became illustrations of general patterns and not just
idiosyncratic instances. Together, these two methods provided a rich
picture of the effects of community pluralism on risk communication.
Further Research
More research is needed into community structure and related forces
that affect press coverage of risk from environmental contaminants, into
the effectiveness of the pluralism-related public information strategies
suggested above, and into the kinds of cognitive processing of risk infor-
mation that audience members do, especially when the media present them
with stories about generic risks. Under what circumstances do people
apply this risk information to their own circumstances?
-------
Conclusion
Our research has demonstrated the effects of community pluralism on
mass mediated risk coverage, and the need for public information programs
concerning environmental risk to tailor their messages to the roles of
media in communities that vary in pluralism. Since most of the mass media
in the United States are small city dailies or broadcast stations, or com-
munity weekly newspapers, public information specialists will need to deal
commonly with the kinds of community constraints on mass communication
about local health risks that we explored in these studies.
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--age 1^-
APPENDIX A:
GENERAL CONTENT ANALYSIS CODING GUIDE
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CONTENT ANALYSIS CODING GUIDE:
GENERAL CONTENT ANALYSIS
Selection Protocol
Criteria:
1) Does the item mention the presence or absence of a link between a
contaminant and human health anywhere in the item (e.g., concerns a health
hazard from an environmental contaminant, a link between an environmental
contaminant and human health)?
If YES, include. If NO, go to step 2.
2) Does the item contain common journalistic terms for contaminants (e.g.,
air pollution, water pollution, solid waste) or contaminant-related
maladies, as indicated on the list of "buzzwords" (SECTION AA)?
If YES, go to step 3. If NO, go to step 4.
3) Does the item concern aspects of the contaminant or malady that could
reasonably be associated with a risk or hazard to human health (e.g., the
substance or the disease)?
If YES, include. If NO, go to step 4.
4) Does the item mention a chemical, organic, or other contaminant?
If YES, go to step 5. If NO, go to step 6.
5) Does the item concern aspects of the contaminant that could reasonably
be associated with a risk or hazard to human health (e.g., the substance)?
If YES, include. If NO, go to step 6.
6) Does the item mention a malady that can be reliably attributed to
exposure to a contaminant (SECTION AB)?
If YES, go to step 7. if NO, exclude item.
7) Does the item concern aspects of the malady that could reasonably be
associated with a risk or hazard from a contaminant (e.g., the disease)?
If YES, include item. If NO, exclude item.
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Initial Coding at Selection:
The initial selection code (Cols. 1-16) is put on the back of each is.em
as well as oa. the back of its headline. Heads are separated from items in
further coding, as noted.
Column(s) Variable Scheme
1 Month 1-9 (Jan.-Sept.) month of issue of paper
2-3 Day 01-31 day of month of issue of paper
4-5 Paper Initials for coding newspaper:
AR Algoma Record-Herald
BN Brookfield News
CS Chicago Sun-Times
CT Chicago Tribune
CF Chippewa Falls Herald-Telegram
DE Delavan Enterprise
DP De Pere Journal
EC Eau Claire Leader-Telegram
FH Franklin Hub
MF Menomonee Falls News
MJ Milwaukee Journal (incl. Waukesha ed.)*
MS Milwaukee Sentinel
MC Monroe County Democrat
OE Oconomowoc Enterprise
OO Oregon Observer
SP Sheboygan Press
SH Sparta Herald
SC Stoughton Courier-Hub
WF Waukesha Freeman
6-7 Item No. 01-99 serial number for item in that
specific issue of a given newspaper on a
given day. Code in order of appearance,
starting with top of front page and working
through pages and sections in order.
8 Location 1-3 coded as follows:
1 front page
2 inside (e.g.
3 inside page
sectional) front page
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9 Type °f Item: 1-4 Code the type of item selected:
1 Story (news or feature)
2 Editorial
3 Personal column
4 Other (cartoon, etc.)
10 Wire w, S, M, C, or 0 coded as follows:
W If-story is entirely from a single
press service, syndicate, etc.
S If story is entirely staff-written.
("Staff is any writer not associated
with a press service, syndicate, etc.)
M If story is a mix of press service
stories, but without staff-generated
information.
C •If story is a combination of staff and
wire material.
0 If story is something other than the
above (e.g., column contribuced by
local government agency).
11-14 Wire ID (0000) 0001-9999 Specific ID number for sto-
ries coded as W (Wire) stories. The same story
in different publications (i.e., a "mul-
tiple") would have this same ID number,
even though the rest of the code up to this
point would be different. Two (or more)
Wire stories would be considered "multiples"
of one another if:
1) The stories come from the same wire
service;
2) Most of the paragraphs are the same;
and
3) The lead is the same or similar.
If wire stories are "multiples," then the
rest of the content coding scheme is applied
only to the longest item. No other coding,
outside of the coding scheme to this point,
the placement of number "1" in column 55,
the Wire Paragraph Count, and the headline
coding, is applied to the shorter versions
of Wire Multiples.
If item is NOT a Wire story, put four zeroes
(0000) in cols. 11-14.
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Pace 1-
15-16 Wire Paragraph Count (00) 01-99 Cjded as follows:
This code applies to Wire Multiples ONLY.
If the item is NOT a Wire Multiple, code
these columns as 00. For Wire Multiples,
count the number of paragraphs in the
item, and enter that number in columns
15-16.
Note: In coding Milwaukee Journal, select stories from
Waukesha section for a given date at the same time as
selecting stories from the rest of the Journal for
that date. Treat first page of Waukesha edition as a
secondary front page (location code 1), but with
item numbers that follow the regular front page of
the Journal.
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FRAMING: Judging from the first three paragraphs of the item, any, ail or
none of the following frames may appear in the beginning of the
item. [NOTE: An exception is made for Anecdotal Frames. If an
Anecdotal Frame is present, consider the Frame to include the
anecdote up to the point that the item indicates the relevance of
the anecdote. Include that paragraph as well.]
17 Anecdotal Frame:
Is an Anecdotal Frame present?
0 No.
1 Yes.
18 Problem Frame:
Is a Problem Frame present?
0 No.
1 Yes.
19 Solution Frame:
Is a Solution Frame present?
0 No.
1 Yes.
20 Scientific Frame:
Is a Scientific Frame present?
0 No.
1 Yes.
21 Governmental/Political Frame;
Is a Governmental/Political Frame present?
0 No.
1 Yes.
22 Conflict Frame:
Is a Conflict Frame present?
0 No.
1 Yes.
23 Consensus Frame;
Is a Consensus Frame present?
0 No.
1 Yes.
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Page 142
24 Risk (Linkage) Frame:
Does Che frame include a linkage between a contaminant and
a malady?
0 No.
1 Yes: Linkage asserted (regardless of risk level).
2 Yes: Linkage proposed (proposal, questionable, reduced risk,
conditional).
3 Yes: Absence of linkage proposed.
4 Yes: Absence of linkage asserted.
NOTE: If various risk linkages occur in the frame, code the one
involving The Contaminant, if present. Otherwise, code the first
risk linkage presented.
25 Risk Signal;
Is a Risk Signal present in the Frame?
[See SECTION AE for list of Risk Signals. If a Risk
Frame is present, code this variable as 9.]
0 No.
1 Yes.
9 Risk Frame is present.
26 Event Frame;
Is an Event Frame present?
0 Not an event-based story.
1 Event based story without event frame.
2 Event based story with event frame.
27 Event Timing;
What is the timing of the event?
0 Not an event-based story.
1 Past event: planned.
2 Past event: unplanned (e.g., accident).
3 Future event.
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25-30 THE Contaminant:
Each item chosen for analysis will be coded according co whether a
contaminant is mentioned in the story, and if so, which contaminar-
is mentioned. This contaminant will be referred to as THE contami-
nant in subsequent analysis of the item. If more than one contami-
nant is mentioned in a story, the contaminant referred to most in
the story will be coded. If the story deals with a mix of contami-
nants about equally, or if a common journalistic buzzword for con-
taminants is used with no further specification of contaminants,
the code will specify the contaminant as being general or a mix, as
noted in the code scheme. Generally, we will code for the most
specific contaminant that the story is primarily about.
000 No contaminant included in item
100 Common journalistic general term for contamination or
contaminant (e.g., item just uses phrase such as "toxic
substance" or "hazardous waste," and is not more specific).
110 "Air Pollution" or synonyms (e.g., "smog")
120 "Water Pollution" or synonyms
130 "Ground/Soil" Pollution or synonyms
199 Mix of general terms for contamination and/or con-
taminants, not further specifiable
200 Toxic or hazardous chemical, type not further specified
(e.g., item just uses phrase such as "pesticide" or "weed
killer", etc.)
NOTE: See SECTION AF for instructions on coding chemicals in the
200 series, using the EPA Title III List of Lists. SECTION AF
also has coding for some specific chemicals.
210 Toxic Chemical (313) in Title III List of Lists.
220 Hazardous Substance (CERCLA) in Title III List of Lists.
230 Extremely Hazardous Substance (EHS) from Title III
List of Lists.
240 Other specific hazardous chemicals
241 Dioxins
242 Petroleum
299 Non-specifiable mix of specific chemicals
Continued...
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r = _ 5 _ -, -
300 Radiation, type not further specified
310 Extra Low Frequency electromagnetic radiation (ELF or EMF)
Te.g., from power lines, electrical appliances, etc.)
315 Other electrical radiation.
320 Microwave radiation
330 Ultraviolet radiation ("solar," ultraviolet light sources)
340 X-Rays
350 "Nuclear" radiation (Gamma rays), radioactivity
351 Radium
352 Radon
360 Other specific radiation
399 Non-specifiable mix of specific radiation sources
400 Infectious organism (e.g., virus, bacteria, parasite)
500 Hazardous particulate matter (e.g., soot, ash)
600 Other contaminants
610 Carbon dioxide
620 Carbon monoxide
630 Ozone (ground level air pollution)
699 Non-specifiable mix of specific contaminants of "other"
variety, or across types (e.g., infectious and chemical).
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==ge 14
21-32 Contaminant Special Code:
Is The Contaminant any of the following?
00 No contaminant included in item.
10 Familiar but hazardous substance (see SECTION AD).
20 Drug or medicine (including impurities).
[Also see SECTION AD.]
30 Related to contagious disease that "goes around."
40 Tobacco smoke (general).
41 As inhaled by smoker and by others.
42 As inhaled by smoker.
43 As inhaled by others (second-hand smoke).
99 None of the above.
33 Location of The Contaminant:
What is the location of The Contaminant?
[See SECTION AC for Location code. If Omnipresent but
localized, code as local, etc. Determine location from actual
location of contaminant, not necessarily based on dateline.]
0 No contaminant included in item.
1 Local.
2 Regional.
3 Distant.
8 Omnipresent (e.g., many unspecified places, "everywhere").
9 Cannot be determined from item (e.g., anywhere).
34 Release:
Does the item mention Release of The Contaminant into the
environment?
[NOTE: "Release" refers to the intentional or accidental
release, or suspected release, of The Contaminant into the
environment, in either an unsanctioned way (e.g., a spill,
illegal dumping, seepage) or through more sanctioned ways
such as controlled releases of pollutants from industries.]
0 No.
1 Yes: Release is contained within buildings or a complex.
2 Yes: Release is NOT contained within buildings or a complex.
3 Yes: Extent of Release cannot be determined from item.
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35 Presence o_f Malady:
Does the item mention a Malady?
0 No.
1 Yes.
NOTE: Common journalistic terms for maladies (e.g., "illness,"
"sickness") will be included if the item specifies that the illness
is due to exposure to a contaminant.
36 Linkage:
Is a Linkage made between a Malady and The Contaminant?
0 No.
1 'Yes, in the frame.
2 Yes, elsewhere in the item.
37 Contaminant/'Protaminant•
Does the Linkage posit positive effects or negative effects on
human health?
0 No linkage between substance and health effects.
1 Substance has negative effects on human health.
2 Substance has positive effects on human health.
PRESENTATION is the manner of depiction of risk information about the
linkage between The Contaminant and a Malady that can occur
anywhere in the item. Any, all or none of the following forms of
presentation may occur in a given item.
If there is no linkage between The Contaminant and a Malady, code
all Presentation variables (Cols. 38-44) as zero (0). See Col. 36
for Linkage code.
38 Verbal-Frequency Presentation;
Is Verbal-Frequency Presentation present?
0 No.
1 Yes, in the frame.
2 Yes, elsewhere in the item.
39 Verbal-Probabilistic Presentation;
Is Verbal-Probabilistic Presentation present?
0 No.
1 Yes, in the frame.
2 Yes, elsewhere in the item.
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41 Frequency o_£ Incidence Presentation;
Is Frequency of Incidence Presentation present?
G Mo.
1 Yes, in the frame.
2 Yes, elsewhere in the item.
41 Probability of Incidence Presentation;
Is Probability of Incidence Presentation present?
0 No.
1 Yes, in the frame.
2 Yes, elsewhere in the item.
42 Anecdotal Presentation;
Is Anecdotal Presentation present?
0 No.
1 Yes, in the frame.
2 Yes, elsewhere in the item.
43 Anecdotal Support:
Is the anecdote used as an illustration of risk information
(verbal-frequency, verbal-probabilistic, frequency of inci-
dence, or probability of incidence) anywhere in the item?
0 Anecdotal presentation not present.
1 No.
2 Yes.
44 Prescriptive Presentation:
Is Prescriptive Presentation present?
0 No.
1 Yes, in the frame.
2 Yes, elsewhere in the item.
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Page 145
45 Familiar but Hazardous Substance:
Does story mention release or disposal of a familiar but
hazardous substance?
[See SECTION AD for listing of these substances.]
0 No.
1 Yes.
46 Location of The Contaminator
What is the location of The Contaminator?
[If more than one Contaminator is mentioned, code the one
referred to most as The Contaminator. If equal mention,
consider the one closest in Location. See SECTION AC for
Location code. If Contaminator is Omnipresent but localized,
code as local, etc.]
0 No contaminator explicitly included in item.
I Local.
2 Regional.
3 Distant.
8 Omnipresent (e.g., many unspecified places, "everywhere").
9 Cannot be determined from item (e.g., anywhere).
47 Type of Contaminator:
Which of the following best describes The Contaminator?
0 No contaminator included in item.
1 Business or industry.
2 Governmental agency.
3 Private individual(s).
4 Other.
8 Unspecifiable mix of sources.
9 Cannot be determined from item.
48 Superfund Inclusion:
Is Superfund included in the item?
[Include mention of Superfund itself, as well as of known
Superfund sites, even if item does not label the site as
a Superfund site. In the latter case, see EPA National
Priorities List (NPL), August 1990, for national listing.
If site is NPL site, but item does not relate it to
Superfund, code as 2, as indicated below.]
0 No.
1 Yes.
2 Yes due to mention of NPL site but Superfund not cited.
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49-5C Superfund Site Code:
(If more than one site is mentioned, code for the site refer-
red topmost in the item. If equal reference, code for closest
site. Include known sites (See SECTION AG and EPA National
Priorities List) even if item does not relate site to Super-
fund.]
00 Item does not mention Superfund site(s).
01-79 Specific codes for some Wisconsin and Chicago-Area
Superfund Sites. See SECTION AG.
80 Love Canal, NY
81 Times Beach, MO
82 Valley of the Drums, KY
90 Other site, local.
91 Other site, regional.
92 Other site, distant.
93 Other site, distant: Wisconsin.
94 Other site, distant: Illinois, Indiana.
[See SECTION AC for Location Code.]
98 Omnipresent or unspecifiable mix of sites.
99 Other site, location not determinable from item.
51-54 Blank.
55 Put the number 1 in Column 55 for each item coded.
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r'SCTS _ Z -
HEADLINE CODING
Col.
1-16 Enter the initial selection code.
NOTE: Definitions for the following will be the same as for
contaminants and item risk frame, signal, and presentation.
17 Contaminant:
Is a contaminant mentioned in the headline?
0 No.
1 Yes.
[Note: Contaminant would be any contaminant term, including more
general terms such as pollution, waste, etc.)
18 Headline Risk (Linkage) Frame:
Does the headline include a linkage between a contaminant and
a malady?
0 No.
1 Yes: Linkage asserted (regardless of risk level).
2 Yes: Linkage proposed (proposal, questionable, reduced
risk, conditional).
3 Yes: Absence of link proposed.
4 Yes: Absence of link asserted.
19 Risk Signal in Headline;
is a Risk Signal present in the headline?
[See SECTION AE for list of Risk Signal words. If the headline
has a risk frame, code Risk Signal as 9.)
0 No.
1 Yes.
9 Headline has risk frame.
20 Anecdotal Presentation:
Is Anecdotal Presentation present in the headline?
0 No.
1 Yes.
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21 Prescriptive Presentation:
Is Prescriptive Presentation present in the headline?
0 No.
1 Yes.
22 Verbal-Frequency Presentation:
Is Verbal-Frequency Presentation present in the headline?
0 No.
1 Yes.
23 Verba1-Probabi1 i s t i c Presentation:
Is verbal-Probabilistic Presentation present in the headline?
0 No.
1 Yes.
24 Frequency of Incidence Presentation;
Is Frequency of Incidence Presentation present in the headline?
0 No.
1 Yes.
25 Probability of Incidence Presentation
Is Probability of Incidence Presentation present in the headline?
O^No.
1 Yes.
55 Put the number 2 in Column 55 for all headlines coded.
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Page IE:
OTHER PRIMARY VARIABLES
The following' primary independent and control variables are added to the
command file, for each community:
o Community Pluralism
The Community Pluralism measure for each community is the summed
ranking of the community across the following variables (alpha=.74):
o Population;
o Proportion of minority and private school students to total
primary and secondary school enrollment;
o Number of religious denominations;
o Number of voluntary social service organizations.
A fifth measure of Pluralism (number of businesses per capita)
was dropped from the index due to poor intercorrelation with
the other measures.
o Toxic Release per Industry
Toxic Release per Industry is calculated by dividing the number
of reported toxic releases for the community (based on the Toxics
Release Inventory) by the number of manufacturers in the com-
munity (based on the Index of Manufactures).
o Manufacturing Employment
Manufacturing employment is the proportion of the population
employed in manufacturing.
The following primary independent and control variables are added to the
command file, for each newspaper:
o Newspaper Ownership
1 Local, independently owned.
2 Owned by chain, local headquarters.
3 Owned by chain, headquarters in same state.
4 Owned by chain, headquarters out-of-state.
[Note: 'Chain' refers to ownership of two or more
newspapers in different communities.]
o News Staff Size
The News Staff Size is the number of fulltime reporters and
non-management editors employed by the newspaper. This variable
is correlated highly with Pluralism (r=.75).
-------
o Science/Environmental Beat
Newspapers were coded according to whether the paper has at
lease one reporter assigned to cover science and/or environment
on a regular basis (0=no, l=yes). This variable is moderately
correlated with Pluralism (r=.56).
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DEFINITIONS
-C-
Contaminants are substances, organisms or conditions in the environment
'that produce secondary, unintentional positive or negative impacts
on human health, excluding trauma. [Dictionary definition): A
contaminant is that which upon coming in contact with something
will make it impure, unclean, or unfit for use.
Each item chosen for analysis will be coded according to whether a
contaminant is mentioned in the story, and if so, which contaminant
is mentioned. This contaminant will be referred to as THE contami-
nant in subsequent analysis of the item. If more than one contami-
nant is mentioned in a story, the contaminant referred to most in
the story will be coded. If the story deals with a mix of contami-
nants about equally, or if a common journalistic buzzword for con-
taminants is used with no further specification of contaminants,
the code will specify the contaminant as being general or a mix, as
noted in the code scheme. Generally, we will code for the most
specific contaminant that the story is primarily about. (Also see
Rule of Inclusion.)
In coding Locality of The Contaminant, if The Contaminant is a mix
or a buzzword. The Contaminant will be considered local if the item
indicates that part of the contamination is local. If the neai
locality of even part of the contamination is regional, then
Locality will be coded as regional.
Contaminators are those human or organizational parties considered
responsible for, or potentially responsible for, producing the
presence of The Contaminant in the environment, or conveying The
Contaminant (e.g., an individual transmitting a virus to another).
To be coded as including a contaminator, the item must explicitly
indicate the presence of a human or organizational agent.
Contaminators do not include regulators or parties who have
inherited contaminated sites but have not contributed themselves to
contamination. In items regarding Superfund, Contaminators include
PRPs (Potentially Responsible Parties). Individuals who are
Contaminators through operating a business (including physicians)
would be coded as business or industry in determining the 'type' of
contaminator.
Each item chosen for analysis will be coded according to whether a
contaminator is mentioned in the story. This contaminator will be
referred to as THE contaminator in subsequent analysis of the item.
If more than one contaminator is mentioned in a story, the contami-
nator referred to most in the story will be coded. If the story
deals with a group of Contaminators about equally, the Locality of
the closest contaminator will be coded in the Locality code.
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Page 155
-E-
Environment refers to that which is outside the person at risk.
Extremely Hazardous Substances are chemicals defined by Sections 301-304
of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. Because
of their acutely toxic properties, these chemicals may be of
immediate concern to the community if they are released. Releases
must be reported to authorities immediately, under the law. Also
see Hazardous Substances, Toxic Chemicals.
-F-
Frames are "principles of selection, emphasis, and presentation composed
of little tacit theories about what exists, what happens, and what
matters" (Gitlin in Dunwoody, 1990), schemata or knowledge
structures that are activated by some stimulus and then employed by
the journalist throughout story construction (Dunwoody). They
represent what the story is "about." In this study, these frames
can include none, all, or some of the following types: Anecdotal,
Conflict, Consensus, Event, Governmental/Political, Problem, Risk,
Scientific, and Solution.
Anecdotal Frames are present when a specific case or cases that the
writer uses as an example or examples' appears in the first three
paragraphs.
Conflict Frames are present if the first three paragraphs of the
item involve description of a controversy (e.g., charges,
responses to charges, disagreements). This frame is not simply
a reporting of a vote or poll, or a simple statement that a
conflict had occurred, but a description of the fact and the
content of the disagreement.
Consensus Frames occur when the first three paragraphs involve
complete or nearly complete agreement among various parties.
This frame is not present if agreement is merely a function of a
close vote, for example. Consensus frames may include some
information that a conflict had proceeded the consensus, but
would still be considered consensus frames if the result is
consensus in the wake of the conflict.
Event Frames are present when information is present in the first
three paragraphs that an event has occurred in the past week (or
on a date labeled "recent"), or will occur in the upcoming week.
To determine whether the item has an event frame, we first
determine whether the item is event based. An item is
event-based if all of the following are true:
1) Information is presented anywhere in the item that states
that an event has occured within the past week (or on a date
that is described as "recent"), or will occur in the upcoming
week ;
2) The event is described or named explicitly (e.g., a meeting,
-------
speech, press conference, accident, publication) anywhere ir
ic err.;
3)-The information in the first three paragraphs is derived fron
the event.
Interviews of sources set up by the journalist are not consider-
ed event-based. For example, a story that gives background on
predictions of a future environmental catastrophe would not be
considered an event-based story unless that story indicates
that, for example, these predictions are based on comments made
by scientists at a conference the day before, or that such a
conference is planned to occur in a few days. Such a conference
would be considered the "event," not the upcoming catastrophe.
Similarly, a general story about the results of an experiment
would not be considered an "event" story (even though the
conducting of an experiment would otherwise be considered as an
event) unless the story is based on a report of the study in,
for example, a "recent" medical journal.
Also see Planned Events and Unplanned Events.
Governmental/Political Frames are present if the first three
paragraphs of the item concern the behavior of governmental
officials, politicians, public employees, or the
governmental/political system. Representatives of governmental
agencies that deal with areas such as environment, health, c~J
science (e.g., EPA, health department) are considered both
scientific and governmental sources. If they are establish
sources of information in the frame, that is sufficient to
establish the frame as a scientific frame (q.v.) and as a
governmental/political frame.
Problem Frames are present when information alerting readers to a
problem or danger is presented in the first three paragraphs.
If a problem and its solution are both presented in the frame,
the coding of problem frame and/or solution frame (q.v.) is as
follows:
1) If the frame presents a solution that effectively solves the
problem presented in the frame, then the frame is a solution
frame and not a problem frame;
2) If the frame presents a solution that does not completely
solve the problem presented in the frame, or if it is uncertain
whether the solution will solve the problem or be adopted (e.g.,
someone proposes that banning a certain chemical is the solution
to eliminating its hazards), then the frame is a problem frame
as well as a solution frame. In short, if there is still notice
of a "problem left" even after information about the solution is
presented in the frame, then the frame is a problem frame as
well as a solution frame.
If the solution to one problem is presented as posing new
problems (e.g., the story is about the side effects of a remedv
-------
CD a problem) , the item is considered to be a procler. frame ar.=
not a solution frame (q.v.).
Risk (Linkage) Frames, while not truly content free, are present if
a linkage between a contaminant and a malady is overtly referred
tc*,in the first three paragraphs of the item. The linkage could
be asserted to various degrees, or denied to various degrees.
Scientific Frames are present if the first three paragraphs of the
item concern the behavior of scientists or the scientific
establishment. Members of the medical professions are consider-
ed to be scientists. If a scientific source is established as a
source of information in the frame, that is sufficient to
establish the frame as scientific. Representatives of
governmental agencies that deal with areas such as environment,
health, and science (e.g., EPA, health department) are consider-
ed both scientific and governmental sources. If they are
established as sources of information in the frame, that is
sufficient to establish the frame as a scientific frame and as a
governmental/political frame (q.v.).
Solution Frames occur when information about how problems or
dangers are being dealt with, or may be dealt with, is presented
in the first three paragraphs. Preventives are considered
solutions in this context. Solution frames may include
information about the problem at issue, yet could be considered
solution frames. If a problem and its solution are both
presented in the frame, the coding of problem frame (q.v.)
and/or solution frame is as follows:
1) If the frame presents a solution that effectively solves the
problem presented in the frame, then the frame is a solution
frame and not a problem frame;
2) If the frame presents a solution that does not completely
solve the problem presented in the frame, or if it is uncertain
whether the solution will solve the problem or be adopted (e.g.,
someone proposes that banning a certain chemical is the solution
to eliminating its hazards), then the frame is a problem frame
as well as a solution frame. In short, if there is still notice
of a "problem left" even after information about the solution is
presented in the frame, then the frame is a problem frame as
well as a solution frame.
If the solution to one problem is presented as posing new
problems (e.g., the story is about the side effects of a remedy
to a problem), the item is considered to be a problem frame
(q.v.) and not a solution frame.
-H-
Hazardous Substances are defined by Section 304 of the Emergency Planning
and Community Right-to-Know Act, and are listed under previous
Superfund hazardous waste cleanup regulations. Releases of these
chemicals above certain amounts may pose an immediate hazard to the
-------
community, and muse be reported immediately to authorities under
the law. Also see Extremely Hazardous Substances, Toxic Chemic
-L-
Linkage refers to a connection between exposure to The Contaminant and
contraction of a malady made in the item. (Also see Rule of
Inclusion.)
Locality (or Location) refers to whether The Contaminant or The
Contaminator are within the main news gathering/circulation areas
of the newspaper. The Locality code has five levels to represent
proximity: Local, Regional, Distant, Omnipresent (q.v.), and
Indeterminate.
Contaminants and contaminators are coded according to the closest
proximity to the newspaper as made explicit in the item. , For
example, a news item in the Sparta Herald might state that a
chemical spill happened in Sparta. The spill is, technically, both
Regional (since it happened in Monroe County) and Local (since it
happened in Sparta). The Contaminant would be coded as Local. Had
the spill happened in Monroe County, but outside of Sparta, the
location of The Contaminant would be coded as Regional, based on
the code system in SECTION AC. Had the item stated that a spill
happened in Dane County, which is outside the "Region' for the
Sparta Herald, The Contaminant location would be coded as Distant.
If the item had not explicitly concerned a local, regional, or
distant spill, but instead had dealt with an increase in the nur"*^
of chemrcal spills in, for example, Wisconsin or the entire Uni
States, The Contaminant location would be coded as Omnipresent
(q.v.). In other words, an Omnipresent code leaves open the
distinct possibility that such spills could be happening locally as
well, even though such a location is not mentioned. If the item
were to state that a spill had happened in Sparta, too, then the
item would be coded as concerning a Local contaminant. If the item
concerned a chemical spill but did not state its location, or
stated that The Contaminant is in relativey few yet unspecified
locations, then The Contiminant location would be coded as
Indeterminate. In short, an •Omnipresent' code means that The
Contaminant or contaminator are in many unspecified places, more or
less "everywhere." An 'Indeterminate" code means that The
Contaminant or contaminator could be 'anywhere.' The former code
leaves open the possibility of The Contaminant or contaminator
being local as well, much more so than does the "Indeterminate"
code.
Coding of location for contaminants and for contaminators must be
done carefully, based on information in the item. It is quite
possible, for example, for local contamination to be caused by a
distant contaminator. The location codes for contaminants and for
contaminators may differ in the same item. Locality codes for
newspapers in this study are contained in SECTION AC.
For newspapers in the suburbs of metropolitan areas, or that are in
communities outside of metropolitan areas, "Local" is considered to
-------
oe Aithir. the community corporate limits, unless the newspaper
i~self also considers a neighboring community as equally local fcr
purposes of news gathering and circulation (e.g., Darien for the
Delavan Enterprise, or Hales Corners for the Franklin-Hales Corners
Hub). For newspapers that serve the central city of metropolitan
areas "Local" is considered to be the metropolitan area, that is,
the central city plus any suburban communities adjacent to the
central city or to other suburban communities. (Since the
Milwaukee Journal includes a Waukesha edition that is coded as part
of the Journal, the city of Waukesha is included as "local.") Areas
considered to be "Regional" are surrounding counties or communities
that are considered also a part of the paper's main newsgathering
or circulation area, based on judgments by staffers or on
consultation with Audit Bureau of Circulations penetration data.
The Locality of a contaminator is determined by the present
location of the contaminator. If the party responsible for
pollution from, for example, a local Superfund site was once a part
of the community but has now moved to a distant city, then the
Locality of that contaminator is considered distant. If the party
responsible is a local business now defunct, the locality would be
considered local if the item states that the person responsible for
the business is still local. If that cannot be determined, code
the item such that the Locality is coded as undeterminable from the
item. In determining the locality of the contaminator when a spill
is made from a vehicle (e.g., a truck or a railroad freight car),
code locality according to which of the following is closest,
judging from the item: 1) the firm or individual responsible for
the vehicle, if indicated; 2) the destination of the vehicle, if
indicated; 3) the origin of the vehicle, if indicated. For
example, if a chemical spills from a tank car spotted on a siding
serving a local business, code the contaminator as local.
-M-
Maladies, for purposes of our study, are human diseases, disorders, or
ailments that can be reliably attributed to exposure to a
contaminant.
Operationalization: Maladies "that can be reliably attributed to
exposure to an environmental contaminant" are those based on
infectious organisms (Merck Index) and those reliably attributed to
exposure to chemicals and other hazardous substances (La Dou,
1990) .
-N-
Non-Specifiable, as used in the code for The Contaminant, means that none
of the named mix of contaminants dominates the item enough so that
it can be named as The Contaminant.
-------
-o-
Onmipresent refers to a contaminant or contaminator being depicted as
general in location, not to exclude it being local as well (eve
though this is not expressed). For example, an item might state
chat tne air in the United States has been polluted by chemicals.
If the item also contains a reference that the air locally is also
polluted, then the item would be coded as local. If a regional
reference, then code as regional. If the item specifically states
the contaminant or contaminator are distant, then code as distant.
If the item explicitly states that the contaminant or contaminator
are in many different places, then code as Omnipresent. If the
item indicates that a contaminant, for example, is in relatively
isolated or few locations, but does not specify where the
contaminant is located, then code as though the location cannot be
determined from the item (9). It is quite possible for the
locality code to be different for the contaminator and for the
contaminant in the same item.
-P-
Planned Events are those events that can be planned (e.g., under the
control of an information source, such as a. press conference).
Also see Unplanned Events.
Presentation is the manner of depiction of risk information about the
linkage of the contaminant to a malady that occurs anywhere in the
item. In this study, presentation can be all, none, or some of |-Ha
following types: Anecdotal, Prescriptive, and the Presence of
Information in verbal-probabilistic and/or numerical form.
Anecdotal Presentation occurs when the item includes a specific
case or cases, used as an example or examples, of persons
afflicted by a malady allegedly due to exposure to the
contaminant. A related code indicates whether the anecdote is
illustrative of supporting risk information in
verbal-probabilistic or numerical form.
Presence of Risk Information takes various forms that concern the
risk of contracting a malady due to exposure to The Contaminant.
This information can be in verbal or numerical form, and concern
frequencies or probabilities. The fourfold typology includes
Verbal-Frequency, Verbal-Probabilistic, Frequency of Incidence,
and Probability of Incidence presentations. Risk information
includes changes or comparisons.
Verbal Presentations of Risk Information report in
non-quantitative terms the incidence or probability of
persons being afflicted by a malady due to exposure to The
Contaminant.
Verbal-Frequency Presentation of Risk Information occurs when
the item includes a non-quantitative statement about the
incidence of persons being afflicted by a malady due to
exposure to The Contaminant. For example, the item might
-------
snate chat some people, or a few people, or many people,
would experience a skin rash after exposure co a particular
chemical.
Verbal-Probabilistic Presentation of Risk Information occurs
when the item includes a non-quantitative statement about the
likelihood of harm from exposure to The Contaminant. This
statement is not just a statement of linkage, or a statement
that The Contaminant could or might produce a malady.
Comments that indicate that the public is "safe," or a
similar statement of low probability, are considered
verbal-probabilistic presentations. For example, an item
might state that a person is "not very likely" to contract
lung cancer from exposure to radon, or that a person is
somewhat more likely to contract lung cancer from exposure to
asbestos if that person is also a smoker.
Numeric Presentations of Risk Information report in quantitative
form the levels of incidence of harm, or the probability of
harm, from The Contaminant. They can report comparative
figures as well (e.g., changes across time, across groups,
across hazards).
Frequency of Incidence Presentation of Risk Information gives
descriptive statistics (raw data—not ratios, percentages, or
proportions) about the number of people who contract a malady
due to exposure to The Contaminant. For example, an item
might say that it is estimated that 200 people contracted
lung cancer last year due to exposure to radon.
Probability of Incidence Presentation of Risk Information
involves use of some form of probability statement to
estimate the likelihood of a person contracting a malady due
to exposure to The Contaminant. Probability estimates
include use of a ratio or proportion (e.g., one out of a
million) or a percentage (e.g., one tenth of one percent) to
express these likelihoods. For example, an item might state
that a person has a 2.5% chance of contracting cancer in a
lifetime due to exposure to hazardous chemicals, or that one
out of every 2,000 people who breathe hazardous levels of a
particular chemical will contract liver damage.
Prescriptive Presentation occurs when the item includes information
that suggests that readers take particular behavioral steps to
decrease the likelihood of harm or increase the likelihood of
being healthy. Prescriptive presentation includes testimonials
(e.g., a source saying what she would do herself) or suggestions
(e.g., a source recommending what others should do).
Suggestions that people avoid The Contaminant, or take
protective steps when dealing with The Contaminant, are consid-
ered Prescriptive Presentations when the contaminant is linked
to a malady.
-------
Protaminants are chose artificial substances that, as a byproduct, can
enhance or maintain health.
-R-
Release refers to the intentional or accidental release, or suspected
release, of The Contaminant into the environment (air, ground,
water) through unsanctioned or accidental ways (e.g., spills,
illegal dumping, seepage) or through more sanctioned ways such as
controlled releases of pollutants from industries. A release can
be a discrete event or series of releases over time. Normal uses
of chemical's such as pesticides are not considered releases. To be
coded as containing information about a release, the item must be
explicit that The Contaminant has been released from containment
(e.g., spill of a chemical, accidental release of radiation,
planned release of a toxic substance, dumping of hazardous medical
waste). Outside of circumstances such as the dumping of hazardous
waste, contagion from infectious organisms through human, animal or
insect transmission would not be considered a release.
Rule of Inclusion: An item may concern a specific contaminant such as
carbon monoxide as "the contaminant," yet make no linkage between
carbon monoxide specifically and a malady. However, this same item
may indicate that carbon monoxide is a component of air pollution
(a broader, more encompassing term), and link air pollution to a
malady. Under these circumstances of inclusion, the item is coded
as linking the contaminant (carbon monoxide) to a malady (due to
inclusion). Generally, under these circumstances, anything said in
the item about the more general term (air pollution) applies a
well to the specific contaminant.
Similarly, the item might concern "air pollution" as the
contaminant, yet not link the broad term to a malady. If the item
indicates that carbon monoxide is a component of air pollution, and
links carbon monoxide to a malady, then air pollution can be coded
as linked to a malady. Generally, under these circumstances,
anything said about the more specific contaminant (carbon monoxide)
applies as well to the more general term.
However, an item could concern two or more components of air
pollution. One, 'the contaminant,• is not linked to a malady in
the item. Another, say carbon monoxide, is linked to a malady.
The contaminant in this case cannot be linked to a malady simply
because they are both components of air pollution.
-s-
Superfund refers to the federal program to clean up toxic waste sites,
formally called the Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980. The most serious
sites are considered for, and put on, the National Priorities List
(NPL) Superfund sites. Many other sites are on the National
hazardous waste inventory. New sites are turned up from time to
time.
-------
-T-
Toxic Chemicals are defined by Section 313 of the Emergency Plar.r.ir.g ana
Community Right-to-Know Act. The chemicals on this list were
selected by Congress primarily due to their chronic or long-term
toxicity. Estimates of releases of these chemicals into air,
water, or land must be reported annually and entered into the Toxic
Release Inventory. Also see Extremely Hazardous Substances,
Hazardous Substances.
Trauma refers to immediate bodily injury caused by mechanical (not
chemical) means.
-U-
Unplanned Events are accidents or unexpected events that may have been
planned by some agent. Also see Planned Events.
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SECTION AA: BUZZWORDS FOR CONTAMINANTS AND MALADIES
FOR USE IN SELECTION PROTOCOL ONLY
AIDS
Acid Rain
Air Pollution
Alcohol
Bacceria
Carbon Monoxide
Chemical
Chlorine
Chlorofluorocarbons
Cocaine
Contaminant
Diet
Disease
Food Poisoning
Garbage
Gasoline
Hazardous Substance
Hazardous Waste
Health
Illness
Insecticide
Mercury
Methane
Nicotine
Nitrates
Nuclear
Oil
Organism
Ozone
Pesticide
Petroleum
Pollution
Radiation
Radioactive
Radon
Smog
Smoking
Spill
Tobacco
Toxic Substance
Virus
Waste
Water Pollution
-------
SECTION AB: MALADIES ASSOCIATED WITH EXPOSURE TO CONTAMINANTS
Maladies From Organisms
Maladies From Chemicals
Acro-osteolysis
Angina
Anorexia
Asthma
Bronchitis
Chesc Tightness
Chloracne
Cholestatic Jaundice
Conjunctivitis
Convulsions
Coronary Artery Disease
Coughing
Delirium
Dermititis
Dizziness
Drowsiness
Eye Burn
Fatigue
Hallucinations
Headache
Heart Disease
Heopatic Angiosarcoma
Hepatitis
Hepatosplenomegaly
Lethargy
Liver Damage
Lung Cancer
Methemoglobinemia
Nausea
Neurobehavioral Abnormalities
Numbness or Tingling (Extremities)
Irritative Dermititis
Pulmonary Edema
Raynaud's Phenomenon
Reperatory Irritation
Retinal Microaneurysms
Shortness of Breath
Skin Burns
Skin Rashes
Skin Thickening
Systemic Collapse
Vomiting
Weight Loss (Unintentional)
Actinomcosis
Amebiasis
Anthrax
Ascarias
Aspergillosis
Bacteremia
Beef Tapeworm Infective
Blastomycosis
Botulism
Bronchitis
Brucellosis
Cat Scratch Disease
Chickenpox
Cellulitis
Cholera
Chromomycos i s
Cocciodioidomycosis
Colorado Tick Fever
Conjunctivitis
Croup
Cryptococcosia
Cytomeglic Inclusion Disease
Diptheria
Drug Rash
Eczema
Encephalitis
Encephalomyelitis
Enterobiasis
Epidemic Gastroenteritis
Erysipeloid
Exanthelm
Fish Tapeworm Infection
Fluke
Gastroenteritis
Geotrichosis
Hepatitis
Herpengina
Herpes Simplex
Herpes Zoster
Herpetic Gingivostomatitis
Histoplasmosis
Histotoxic Cloistridial Disease
Hookworm Disease
(Continued)
-------
SECTION AB. continued...
Maladies From Organisms:
Influenza
Keratoconjufittivitis
Leishmaniasis
Leprosy
Lepcospirosis
Listenosis
Lack3 aw/Tecanus
Lymphadenitis
Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis
Maduromycosis
Malaria
Measles
Meningitis
Meningoencephalitis
Molluscum Contagion Tumors
Mononucleosis
Mumps/Parotitis
Myocarditis
Nectrotizing Enteritis
Neurotoxic Closteridial Disease
Nocariosis
Orchitis
Paralytic Disease
Parainfluenza
Penicilliosis
Pericarditis
Pharyngoconjunctival Fever
Phy corny cos is
Plague
Pleurodynia
Pneumonia
Poliomyelitis
Pork Tapeworm Infection
Protozoa
Rabies
Ratbite Fever
Respiratory Syncytial
Reye's Syndrome
Rheumatic Fever
Rhinosporidiosis
Roseola Infantum
Roundworm
Rubeola/Measles
Rubella/German Measles
Salmonella
Sarcoidosis
Scarlet Fever
Shigellosis
Smallpox
Sporotrichosis
Staphylococcol Infection
Streptococcal Infection
Strongyloidiasis
Syphilis
Systemic Candidiasis
Tapeworm
Toxocariasis
Toxoplasmosis
Trench Fever
Trichinosis
Trichuriasis
Tuberculosis
Tularemia
Typhoid Fever
Typhus
Vulvovaginitis
Whooping Cough
Yellow Fever
Warts
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SECTION AC: 'LOCALITY' CODE FOR NEWSPAPERS IN ANALYSIS
The LOCALITY code for each newspaper is divided into five values: Local,
Regional, Distant, Omnipresent, and Indeterminate. Localities are also
coded according to the higher .order of closeness. For example, a spill of
a hazardous chemical in Sparta is both in Sparta itself (therefore, local)
and in Monroe County (therfore, regional). The locality would be coded as
local. Areas outside of places considered local, yet within the region,
are coded as regional.
Locality codes were determined in consultation with knowledgeable staffers
on each newspaper, and/or by checking Audit Bureau of Circulations
penetration data.
Areas considered Local and Regional for this study are:
NEWSPAPER
"LOCAL"
Algoma Record-
Herald
Brookfield News
Algoma
Brookfield
Chicago Sun-Times Chicago Metro
Chicago Tribune Chicago Metro
Chippewa Falls
Herald-Telegram
Delavan Enter-
prise
DePere Journal
Eau Claire
Leader-Telegram
Franklin-Hales
Corners Hub
Chippewa Falls
Delavan, Darien
DePere
Eau Claire Metro
Franklin,
Hales Corners
"REGIONAL"
Kewaunee County
Butler, Elm Grove, Menomonee
Falls, New Berlin, waukesha,
Wauwatosa, West Allis
Illinois counties of Cook,
DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry,
Will; northern Lake and
Porter Counties, Indiana.
Illinois counties of Cook,
DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry,
Will; northern Lake and
Porter Counties, Indiana.
Chippewa County,
Eau Claire County
Walworth County
Southern Brown County,
Eastern Outagamic County.
Greenleaf, Kaukauna,
Little Chute, Wrightstown
Counties of Chippewa, Clark,
Dunn, Eau Claire, Pepin
Greendale, Greenfield,
Muskego, New Berlin, Oak Creek
-------
"LOCAL"
"REGIONAL'
Menomor.ee Falls Menomonee Falls
News
Milwaukee Journal Milwaukee Metro
Waukesha
Milwaukee Sentinel Milwaukee Metro
Monroe County
Democrat
Oconomowoc
Enterprise
Oregon Observer
Sheboygan Press
Sparta
Oconomowoc
Oregon, Brooklyn
Sheboygan
Sparta Herald
Sparta
Stoughton Stoughton
Waukesha Freeman Waukesha
Brookfield, Butler, German-
town, Lannon, Milwaukee,
Mequon
Counties of Dodge, Fond du Lac,
Jefferson, Kenosha, Ozaukee,
Racine, Sheboygan, Walworth,
Washington, Waukesha
Counties of Dodge, Fond du Lac,
Jefferson, Kenosha, Ozaukee,
Racine, Sheboygan, Walworth,
Washington, Waukesha
Counties of Jackson, Juneau,
Lacrosse, Monroe
Counties of Jefferson,
Waukesha; Southeast Dodge
County (Ashippun)
Dane County
Counties of Sheboygan and
Ozaukee; Towns of Campbells-
port, Cleveland, Kewaskum,
Kiel, Kohler, Mt. Calvary,
Newburg, New Holstein, Newton,
St. Cloud, St. Nazianz
Counties of Jackson, Juneau
LaCrosse, Monroe
Dane County
Waukesha County
-------
SECTION AD: FAMILIAR BUT HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES
These are substances that members of the general public might cormcniy
use. Based on The Environmental Consumer's Handbook (EPA 1990) and
"Household Hazardous Waste" (Citizens for a Better Environment), these
substances (a's amended) include:
Air Fresheners
Antifreeze (Auto)
Auto Body
Repair Products
Car Batteries
Cleaners:
Carburetor
Drain Openers
Fabric
Gun
Oven
Tub and Tile
Upholstery (solvent
Degreasers
(auto, household)
Disinfectants
(esp. Kitchen,
Bathroom)
Flea Spray, Collars
Fungicides
Furniture Polish
Gasoline
Glue
Lawn Fertilizers
Lighter Fluid
Mildew Cleaners
Mothballs
Motor Oil
Nail Polish & Remover
Paints
Paint Stripper
Pesticides
and Repellants
Photographic Chemicals
Plant Sprays
Rodent Poison
Rug Shampoo
Rust Remover
Silver Polish
Spot Remover
Swimming Pool Chemicals
Stains (wood)
Varnishes
and Varnish Removers
Weed Killers
NOTE: This list will likely not be exhaustive. Also considered a
"Familiar but Hazardous Substance" will be any substance that the item
depicts as commonly available to consumers that can provide an
environmental health hazard.
Drugs and Medicines:
Excluded are drugs and medicines, except when the context concerns
disposal of unused or expired drugs and medicines. Potential for
overdose, or side effects, of drugs and medicines, for example, would not
put drugs and medicines in the category of Familiar but Hazardous
Substances. Circumstances in which drugs and medicines could be released
into the environment would put drugs and medicines into the category of
Familiar but Hazardous Substances. Coding for the Contaminant Special
Code in regard to drugs and medicines should reflect this distinction.
-------
SECTION AE: RISK SIGNALS
RISK SIGNALS are words or phrases that indicate some danger is presen
even if that danger is not a main point of the item or its frame. Wo
that are risk signals are the following and any close synonyms used in the
context of rwrman health:
communicable noxious
contagious perilous
contaminated
danger poisonous
deadly risky
epidemic threat
fear
harmful toxic
hazardous unsafe
ill-effects virulent
infectious warning
miasmic worry
-------
SECTION AF:
CONTAMINANT CODE FOR SOME HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES
(See EPA Tide III List of. Lists for More Complete Listing.)
NOTE ON DETERMINING 200-LEVEL CODE FROM LIST OF LISTS:
If the substance is listed only under the column labeled Sec. 313 in the
EPA Title III List o£ Lists, then it is coded as 210.
If the substance has an entry under the column labeled CERCLA RQ, ("RQ"
means Reportable Quantity) but does not have an entry under the two
columns for EHS, then it is coded in the 220 series.
If the substance is listed under either of the EHS columns, regardless of
its listing elsewhere, it is coded as part of the 230 series.
The following are contaminant codes for some substances:
Contaminant (200s) Code
1.1,1 Tricholoroethane 220
2-4-5-T 220
Acetone 220
Aldrin 230
Aluminum (fumes, dust) 210
Ammonia 230
Arsenic 210
Asbestos 220
Barium 210
Benzene 220
Benzo[a]pyrene 220
Cadmium 210
Carbon Disulfide 230
Carbon Tetrachloride 220
Chlorinated Organic
Solvents 200
Chlordane 230
Chlorine 230
Chloroform 230
Chromic Acid 220
Chromium 210
Creosote 220
Cyanides 220
DBCP 220
DDT, DDD, DDE 220
Dieldrin 220
Dioxins 241
-------
Concarr.ir.ar.r (200s! Code
Ethyl Ether220
Ethylene 210
Formaldehyde** 230
•Heavy Metals' 210
Heptachlor 220
Hydrazine 230
Hydrochloric Acid 220
Isopropyl Alcohol 210
Lead 220
Lindane 230
Manganese 210
Mercury 220
Methanol 220
Methoxychlor 220
Methyl Chloride 220
Methylene Chloride 220
Nickel 210
Nitric Acid 230
Nitroglycerin 220
Parathion 230
•Petrochemicals' 200
Phthalates 220
Polychlorinated
Biphenyls (PCBs) 220
Polycyclic Aromatic
Hydrocarbons (PAH) 220
Propylene (Propene) 210
Strychnine 230
Sulphur Dioxide 230
Sulphuric Acid 230
Tetrachloroethylene 220
Trichloroethylene 220
Toluene 220
Urethane 220
Vinyl Chloride 220
Volatile Organic
Compounds (VOCs) 200
Warfarin 230
Xylene 220
-------
SECTION AG:
SITE CODES FOR SOME WISCONSIN AND CHICAGO-AREA SUPERFUND SITES
Code Site Name
Wisconsin
01 Aigoma Municipal Landfill
02 Becter Brite
03 City Disposal Corp. Landfill
04 Delavan Municipal Well No. 4
05 Eau Claire Municipal Well Field
06 Fadrowski Drum Disposal
07 Fort Howard Paper Co. Lagoons
08 Hagen Farm (on County A)
09 Hunt's Disposal Landfill
10 Kohler Co. Landfill
11 Lauer I Sanitary Landfill
(alias Waste Mgt. Lauer I,
United Waste Systems)
12 Madison Metro Sewerage
Sludge District Lagoons
13 Master Disposal Landfill
14 Moss-American
(alias Kerr-McGee)
15 Muslcego Sanitary Landfill
16 N.W. Mauthe Co.
17 National Presto
(alias Hallie Site)
18 Northern Engraving
19 Oconomowoc Electroplating
20 Omega Hills North Landfill
(alias Germancown Landfill I,
Chem. Waste Mgt. Lauer II)
County ^n or Near Community Of
Kewaunee Aigoma, Ahnapee
Brown DePere
Dane Dunn Township, Oregon
Walworth Delavan
Eau Claire Eau Claire
Milwaukee Franklin
Brown Green Bay
Dane Stoughton
Racine Caledonia
Sheboygan Kohler
Waukesha Menomonee Falls
Dane Madison
Waukesha Brookfield
Milwaukee Milwaukee
Waukesha Muskego
Outagamie Appleton
Eau Claire Eau Claire,
Chippewa Falls, Hallie
Monroe
Dodge
Sparta
Ashippun
Washington Germantown
-------
Code Site Name
County In or Near Community Of
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
Wisconsin
Onalaska Municipal Landfill
Sheboygan River and Harbor
Stoughton City Landfill
Toman Armory
Tomah Fairgrounds
Toman Municipal Landfill
Waste Management
(alias Brookfield Landfill)
Waste Research & Reclamation
Chicago Area: Illinois
Amoco Chemicals Joliet Landfill
DuPage County Landfill
(Blackwell Forest Preserve)
Galesburg/Koppers Co.
(alias Burlington Northern
Rail Yard)
H.O.D. Landfill
(alias CCD Landfill)
Johns -Manvi lie Corp. pits
Joliet Army Ammunition Plant
General Reference (2 sites)
Load-Assembly-Packing Area
Manufacturing Area
Kerr McGee West Chicago
Facility General Reference
(4 sites)
Kress Creek/West Branch
of DuPage River
Reed-Keppler Park
Residential Areas
Sewage Treatment Plant
Lenz Oil Service
Outboard Marine Corp. areas
LaCrosse
Sheboygan
Dane
Monroe
Monroe
Monroe
Waukesha
Eau Claire
Will
Dupage
Knox
Lake
Lake
Will
will
Will
DuPage
DuPage
DuPage
DuPage
DuPage
Cook
Lake
Onalaska
Sheboygan, Kohler,
Sheboygan Falls
Stoughton
Tomah
Tomah
Tomah
Brookfield
Eau Claire
Joliet
Warrenville
Galesburg
Antioch
Waukegan.
Joliet
Joliet
Joliet
West Chicago
West Chicago
West Chicago
West Chicago
West Chicago
Lemon t
Waukegan
-------
Code Site Name
County In or Near Community Of
55
56
57
58
59
70
71
72
73
74
Chicago Area: Illinois
Petersen Sand & Gravel
.Tri-County Landfill (Waste
Management of Illinois)
Waucanda Sand & Gravel
Woodstock Municipal Landfill
Yeoman Creek Landfill
Chicago Area : Indiana
American Chemical Service
Lake Sandy Jo
(alias M&M Landfill)
MIDCO
General Reference (2 sites)
MIDCO I
MIDCO II
Lake
Kane
Lake.
McHenry
Lake
Lake
Lake
Lake
Lake
Lake
Libertyvilie
South Elgin
Wauconda
Woodstock
waukegan
Griffith
Gary
Gary
Gary
Gary
75 Ninth Avenue Dump
Lake
Gary
-------
APPENDIX B:
SOURCES USED FOR SUPERFUND CASE STUDIES
-------
Sources used for National Presto Industries Site, Eau Claire, WI
Interviews:
Mark Baker, Editor, Chippewa Falls Herald-Telegram
James E^ Boettcher, District Hydrogeologist, Wisconsin Department of
**Natural Resources, Eau Claire, WI
Kim Bro, Environmental Engineer, Wisconsin Division of Health, Madi-
son, WI
Darryl Farmer, Director of Environmental Health, Eau Claire
City-County Health Department
Bill Gharrity, Reporter, Eau Claire Leader-Telegram
Mike Gifford, Remedial Project Manager, EPA Region 5, Chicago
Gary Johnson, Regional Editor, Eau Claire Leader-Telegram
Janean Marti, Chippewa Falls News Bureau Chief, Eau Claire Lead-
er-Telegram
John Matthews, former Reporter for the Chippewa Falls Herald-Tele-
gram, now Assistant Director and Business Policy Analyse,
Senate Republican Caucus, Madison, WI
Barbara Shay, former Reporter for the Chippewa Falls Herald-Telegram,
now Reporter, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune
David Weitz, District Information Officer, Wisconsin Department of
Natural Resources, Eau Claire, WI
Printed Reports:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Site Fact Sheets
Content Analysis:
Chippewa Falls Herald-Telegram: 1985-1991
Eau Claire Leader-Telegram: 1983-1991
Sources used for the Better Brite Chrome and Zinc Sites. De Pere, WI
Interviews;
Terry Anderson, Environmental Reporter, Green Bay Press-Gazette
Kim Bro, Environmental Engineer, Wisconsin Division of Health, Madi-
son, WI
Dave Crehore, Public Information Officer, Wisconsin Department of
Natural Resources, Green Bay, WI
Marie Creviere, Editor, De Pere Journal
Paul Creviere, Publisher, De Pere Journal
Terry Koehn, Environmental Specialist and Project Manager for the
Better Brite site, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources,
Green Bay, WI
Dave Linnear, Remedial Project Manager, EPA Region 5, Chicago
Kathleen McGillis, former City Editor of the Green Bay News-Chroni-
cle, now Reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette
Marjorie Paul, Reporter, De Pere Journal
-------
Dc-g Rossberg, Program Supervisor for the SOiid and Hazardous Xas-:e
Program, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Madis
WI
Printed Reports:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Site Fact Sheets
Content Analysis;
De Pere Journal: 1986-1991
Green Bay News-Chronicle: 1985-1990
Green Bay Press-Gazette: 1979-1981, 1986-1991
Sources used for the Sheboygan River & Harbor and the Kohler Landfill
Sites, Sheboygan. WI
Interviews:
Kim Bro, Environmental Engineer, Wisconsin Division of Health, Madi-
son, WI
Barbara N. Ebenreiter, President, Sheboygan County Chamber of Com-
merce, and co-founder, Sheboygan Water Quality Task Force,
Sheboygan, WI
Bonnie Eleder, Remedial Project Manager, EPA Region 5, Chicago
Barry Ginter, Outdoor Writer, Sheboygan Press
Sandra Kimball, Editor, The Sheboygan Falls News
Chuck Ledin, Chief, Water Resources Planning & Policy, Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resouces, Madison, WI
Kurt W. Mueller Jr., former reporter, Sheboygan Press
Printed Reports:
Sheboygan County Water Quality Task Force, Planning and Management
for the Removal of Contaminated Sediments from the Sheboygan
River and Harbor, 1987
Sheboygan County Water Quality Task Force, Sheboygan River and Harboi
Sediment Pollution Abatement Program, 1989
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Site Fact Sheets
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Sheboygan River Remedial
Action Plan, 1989
Content Analysis;
The Sheboygan Falls News: 1984-1989
Sheboygan Press; 1984-1991
-------
APPENDIX C:
TOXICS RELEASE INVENTORY (TRI) CASE STUDY
CONTENT ANALYSIS CODING GUIDE
-------
Selection Protocol
Criteria:
Is che newspaper a daily newspaper in the seven states of Illinois,
Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, or Wisconsin?
If NO, exclude.
If YES' Does the newspaper subscribe to the Associated Press?
[See Editor and Publisher (1991a) Yearbook.]
If YES, begin INITIAL CODING.
Initial Coding:
If NO, exclude.
Column(s)
1-3
5-7
9-11
12-14
15
Variable
Community
SMSA?
County
State
Newspaper
Circulation
Ownership
Scheme
Code for the community in the 7-state
region served by this daily newspaper.
(See SECTION CA for Listing.)
Is community in a Standard Metropolitan
Statistical Area (SMSA)?
0 No
1 Yes
2 Central City of SMSA
Code for the county.
(See SECTION CA for Listing.)
1 Illinois.
2 Indiana.
3 Iowa.
4 Michigan.
5 Minnesota.
6 Ohio.
7 Wisconsin.
Name of daily newspaper.
(See SECTION CB for Listing.)
Circulation in thousands.
Newspaper ownership:
1 Local, independently owned.
2 Owned by chain, local headquarters.
3 Owned by chain, headquarters in
same state.
4 Owned by chain, headquarters
out-of-state.
9 Cannot be determined.
[NOTE: "Chain" refers to ownership of
two or more newspapers in different
communities.]
-------
Staffing
15
Science/En-
vironment
Writer
Number of non-management editors,
columnists, and specialty writers/
reporters listed in Editor and
Publisher Yearbook. Code 00-98.
99=Not ascertainable.
Does newspaper list at least one
science and/or environment writer
or editor in E&P Yearbook?
0 No
1 Yes
9 Not ascertainable.
19-22
Population Rank Code as rank of community population.
Lowest=001.0.
[NOTE: For Population, Minority, and
Business ranks, do not use a decimal
point but assume the fourth coding
column to be a decimal place.]
23-26
Minority Rank
27-30
Business Rank
31
INFORM Rank
32-39
Total Toxic
Code as rank of "Minority."
Lowest=001.0.
["Minority"=Minority and non-public
school enrollment as proportion of
school enrollment in community's
school district.]
Code as rank of "Retail Outlets."
Lowest=001.0.
["Retail Outlets"=Retail outlets within
six miles of city center, as a proportion
of community population.]
Is community's county listed as one of
INFORM's "Top 20" dirtiest counties?
0 No.
1 Yes, for a specific category of
releases, but not for Total.
2 Yes, for Total Toxic Releases.
Total toxic releases (in Ibs.) in
community's county as listed by the
INFORM report, based on TRI.
-------
Item Coding: Newspapers in the analysis that did not rur: an it err. (r.ews
story or editorial) on the INFORM, Inc., report on "Toxic Clusters" •*•: ""
be codec as 999Z in Cols. 40-43. Analysis runs from July 24 througn
August 31, 1991. If a newspaper runs essentially the same news story
(excluding editorials) more than once on the same day (e.g., in different
editions), analyze only the longer news story; exclude the shorter news
stories from the analysis altogether. If a paper runs items on different
days, or different items (e.g., story and editorial) on the same day, code
all coverage as though it were a single incidence of coverage. Follow
specific instructions given for certain codes to follow. Information to
be coded in an item includes information in any accompanying graphics.
NOTE on SMSAs: In newspaper is published in central city of SMSA, "local"
is any county even part of which is within the SMSA. If newspaper's
community is in SMSA but not in the central city, "local" refers only to
that newspaper's community or county; other communities or counties in the
same SMSA are "regional," even if they are not abutting the newspaper's
community or county. The SMSA is treated as a geographical unit when the
SMSA is "regional" to another paper in a county abutting the SMSA
counties.
Column(s!
40-43
Variable
Item ID
Scheme
Designated number on photocopy of item.
Code 018Z to 117A, plus 999Z.
[If newspaper did not run an item based
on the INFORM report, code as 999Z.
SKIP to COL 65.]
[If more than one item, put the code
for additional items after col. 68.]
44-46
47
Date
Item Type
Date (Month/Day) the story appeared.
[Code numerically, e.g., 731, 801, etc.
If more than one item, code earliest date.]
Code:
48
49
Item Origin Code:
Item Location Code:
1 Single news story.
2 Single editorial.
3 Two news stories.
4 News story and editorial
S Staff written.
M Mix of staff and wire.
W Wire.
1 Front page.
2 Elsewhere.
[If one of multiple items is on
front page, code as front page.]
-------
5C-51
Item Length
Count niLTier of paragraphs.
[If more than one item, count total
paragraphs for all items.]
NOTE: For multiple items — code cols. 52-58, 60-63 to highest numerical
value present across items.
52
Risk Linkage
Was a linkage made between the toxic
releases and any specific maladies that
pose a risk to human health, anywhere in
the item?
0 No. [Go to 54]
1 Yes. [Go to 56]
2 Yes, in the first 3
[Go to 56]
paragraphs,
54
•Toxic"
Titles
Does the item use the title of the
report ("Toxic Clusters...") or the
title of the "Toxics Release Inventory?1
Code: 0 No. [Go to 55]
1 Yes. [Go to 55]
2 Yes, in first 3
[Go to 55]
paragraphs,
55
Risk Signal
Outside of the use of the toxic titles
("Toxic Clusters," "Toxics Release Inven-
tory"), was a Risk Signal present in the
item? (See SECTION CC.)
0 No. [Go to 56]
1 Yes. [Go to 56]
2 Yes, in first 3 paragraphs.
[Go to 56]
-------
J — -^ —
56 Iter1 Localization:
Local Does the item refer to the stacus of
toxic releases for the paper's com-
munity or county?
[NOTE: If paper is in central city of
Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area,
include as local any county that, even
in part, is included in that SMSA.]
0 No. [Go to 60]
1 Yes.' [Go to 57]
2 Yes, in first 3 paragraphs.
[Go to 57]
57 IF YES: Outside of a simple toxic release
ranking for its own community/county, does
the item present comparative information
to indicate that the level of local toxic
release is worse (higher) than other,
non-local community or county?
[NOTE: Comparative information, for
example, would be the ranks of other
communities or counties in the same
category of release (e.g., total, air),
descriptive information (such as pounds
of toxic substances released "here vs.
there"), or qualitative statements of
comparison in regard to toxic releases
or related pollution.]
0 No. [Go to 58]
1 Yes. [Go to 58]
58 Outside of a simple toxic release
ranking for its own community/county, does
the item present comparative information
to indicate that the level of local toxic
release is better (lower) than other,
non-local community or county?
0 No. [Go to 59]
1 Yes.[Go to 59]
59 If the newspaper is in Central City of SMSA,
does the (an) item compare releases in
communities/counties that are part of
the SMSA?
0 No. [Go to 60]
1 Yes. [Go to 60]
9 Not Central City of SMSA.
[Go to 60]
-------
£3 Ite~ Localization:
Regional Does the item refer to the status of
toxic releases for at least one of the
counties adjacent to the community's
county? (If paper is in central city of
SMSA, for at least one of the counties
adjacent to those in the SMSA?)
0 No.
1 Yes.
2 Yes, in first 3 paragraphs.
61 Item Localization:
Statewide Does the item refer to the status of
toxic releases STATEWIDE for the state
in which the newspaper is published?
0 No.
1 Yes.
2 Yes, in first 3 paragraphs.
62 Item Localization:
Distant Does the item refer to the status of
toxic releases in "Distant" place(s)?
[NOTE: A "Distant" place is another state,
or a community/county that is not "local"
or "regional," even in the paper's own
state. References to toxic releases for
the entirety of the state in which the
paper is published are coded as "State-
wide," not Distant.]
0 No.
1 Yes.
2 Yes, in first 3 paragraphs.
63 Item Localization:
Omnipresent Does the item refer to the level of
toxic releases in general over the
seven-state area?
0 No.
1 Yes.
2 Yes, in first 3 paragraphs.
-------
Headline
Localization
68 Special Code
69-72 Multi-Item
CF Headline:
Risk
CF
CF
Press Kit
Proximity to
Press Conf,
CF
CF
N Manufacturers
Community Reliance
on Manufactur-
ing
Does the (a) headline indicate the iocacio:
of toxic releases?
[Code to the most local sites. Code as
Omnipresent only if headline makes that
kind of assertion.]
0 No.
1 Yes: Local.
2 Yes: Regional.
3 Yes: Statewide.
4 Yes: Distant.
5 Yes: Omnipresent.
Place an X in Col. 68 for ALL cases.
Item number for analysis of multiple items
Is a Risk Signal present in the (a) headline?
[See SECTION CC for a list of Risk Signal words
0 No.
1 Yes.
Was newspaper sent an Inform, Inc. press kit?
0 No.
1 Yes.
How close was newspaper to the nearest press
conference? [Conferences were held in Detroit,
MI, Green Bay, WI, and Whiting, IN.)
2 Same SMSA.
1 In county adjacent to press
conference SMSA.
0 Further away than above.
Number of industrial facilities in county (or
SMSA if newspaper is in SMSA central city).
Use as denominator for 'Total Toxic" Releases
to determine Toxic Releases per Industry.
Proportion of people employed by manufacturers
in County divided by population of county.
(Use SMSA data if newspaper is in central city
of SMSA.)
CF = data entered into command or system files.
-------
DEFINITIONS
-L-
Linkage refers to a connection between exposure Toxic Releases and
contraction of a malady made in the item. (Also see Rule of
Inclusion.}
Localization refers to whether information about the toxic releases is made
local, regional, statewide, distant, or omnipresent (q.v.). If a
newspaper is within a Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA),
the counties included in the SMSA are considered "local" to that
newspaper, such that a report on toxic releases from any one of those
counties is sufficient to classify the item as local. Regional
counties would be those abutting the newspaper's county. If the paper
is in an SMSA, regional counties are those abutting, but not including,
the SMSA counties.
-M-
Maladies, for purposes of our study, are human diseases, disorders, or
ailments that can be reliably attributed to exposure to Toxic Releases.
-O-
Omnipresent refers to the Toxic Release being depicted as general in
location, not to exclude it being local as well (even though this is
not expressed). For example,,an "omnipresent" item state that the air
in the Midwest has been polluted by chemicals. If the item also
contains a reference that the air locally is also polluted, then the
item would also be coded as local. If a regional reference, then code
also as regional. If the item specifically states that the Toxic
Release is distant, then code also as Distant. If the item
specifically states that the Toxic Releases are in many places, then
code as Omnipresent.
-R-
Retail Outlets: The number of retail outlets is determined by the number
of banks and the number of stores within six miles of the city center
as listed for each community in Editor and Publisher's (1991b) Market
Guide. Ranking is based on per capita information for the community.
Rule of Inclusion: An item may concern a specific contaminant such as
carbon monoxide as a Released toxin, yet make no linkage between carbon
monoxide specifically and a malady. However, this same item may
indicate that carbon monoxide is a component of air pollution (a
broader, more encompassing term), and link air pollution to a malady.
Under these circumstances of inclusion, the item is coded as linking
the contaminant (carbon monoxide) to a malady (due to inclusion).
Generally, under these circumstances, anything said in the item about
the more general term (air pollution) applies as well to the specific
contaminant.
-------
-s-
Status of Toxic Releases: The status of toxic releases refers to a
comparison made in the text of the item between the levels of toxic
releases in two or more locales. This comparison may be rather direcr
(e.g., thotf toxic releases in the community are greater than toxic
releases in another community) or rather indirect (e.g., thac the
county is among the top 20 in toxic releases in the Midwest, ranks
tenth in the state in toxic releases, and so forth). A simple
reporting of the amount of toxic release, without a means of comparing
it" to other locales at least indirectly, would not be a reporting of
the status of toxic releases. When coding Omnipresent: toxic releases,
some statement of level of toxic releases (e.g., that the Midwest is
highly polluted) is sufficient to indicate omnipresence in the seven
state area.
-------
SECTION CA: COMMUNITY and COUNTY CODES
NOTE: The following communities in the seven-state region
have daily newspapers as listed in SECTION CB. The code for
the community appears to the left of each community. The
name of the county is below the community name. County
codes are to the right of the county name.
000 Community
County 000
ILLINOIS
255 Alton
Madison 233
256 Aurora
Kane 234
257 Beardstown
Cass 235
254 Belleville
St. Clair 232
258 Belvidere
Boone 236
259 Benton
Franklin 237
248 Bloomington
McLean 226
260 Canton
Fulton 238
261 Carbondale
Jackson 239
262 Carmi
White 240
263 Centralia
Marion 241
264 Champaign
Champaign 242
265 Charleston
Coles 243
247 Chicago
Cook 225
266 Clinton
DeWitt 244
250 Crystal Lake
McHenry 228
267 Danville
Vermillion 245
268 Decatur
Macon 246
269 DeKalb
DeKalb 310
272 Effingham
Effingham 247
273 Eldorado
Saline 248
274 Elgin
Kane 234
275 Flora
Clay 249
276 Freeport
Stephenson 250
252 Galesburg
Knox 230
277 Harrisburg
Saline 248
278 Jacksonville
Morgan 231
251 Joliet
Morgan 251
279 Kankakee
Kankakee 252
280 Kewanee
Henry 253
281 LaSalle
LaSalle 254
282 Lawrenceville
Lawrence 255
283 Libertyville
Lake 255
355 Lincoln
Logan 301
356 Litchfield
Montgomery 302
357 Macomb
McDonough 303
358 Marion
Williamson 304
359 Mattoon
Coles 243
363 Mount Carmel
Wabash 307
364 Olney
Richland 308
365 Ottawa
LaSalle 254
284 Paris
Edgar 905
285 Paxton
Ford 906
286 Pekin
Tazewell 907
287 Peoria
Peoria 908
288 Pontiac
Livingston 401
289 Quincy
Adams 262
290 Robinson
Rock Island 909
337 Rock Island
Rock Island 909
291 Rockford
Winnebago 911
292 Shelbyville
Shelby 912
293 Springfield
Sangamon 914
294 Sterling
Whiteside 916
295 Streator
LaSalle 254
253 Taylorville
Christian 231
296 Watseka
Iroquois 917
297 Waukegan
Lake 256
-------
ILLINOIS, cor.t'd.
249 Dixon
Lee 227
2~0 DuQuoin
Perry 311
271 Edwardsville
Madison 233
361 Monmouth
Warren 305
362 Morris
Grundy 306
298 West Frankfurt
Franklin 237
299 Wheaton
DuPage 257
INDIANA
340 Anderson
Madison 067
341 Auburn
DeKalb 288
058 Bedford
Lawrence 056
059 Bicknell
Knox 057
060 Bloomfield
Greene 058
061 Bloomington
Monroe 059
062 Bluffton
Wells 060
063 Brazil
Clay 061
064 Chesterton
Porter 062
055 Clinton
Vermilion 053
056 Columbia
Whitley 054
065 Columbus
Bartholomew 063
066 Connorsville
Fayette 064
067 Crawfordsville
Montgomery 065
047 Decatur
Adams 046
068 Elkhart
Elkhart 066
069 Elmwood
Madison 067
070 Evansville
Vanderburgh 068
054 Fort Wayne
Allen 052
046 Frankfort
Clinton 045
072 Goshen
Elkhart 066
073 Greencastle
Putnam 070
074 Greenfield
Hancock 071
049 Greensburg
Decatur 048
036 Hammond
Lake 036
075 Hartford City
Blackford 072
076 Huntington
Huntington 073
039 Indianapolis
Marion 038
041 Jasper
DuBois 040
077 Jeffersonville
Clark '074
078 Kendallville
Noble 075
050 Kokomo
Howard 049
051 LaPorte
LaPorte 043
079 Lafayette
Tippecanoe 076
080 Lebanon
Boone 077
081 Linton
Greene 058
082 Logansport
. Cass 078
344 Marion
Grant 291
345 Martinsville
Morgan 292
044 Michigan City
LaPorte 043
342 New Albany
Floyd 289
343 New Castle
Henry 290
048 Noblesville
Hamilton 047
084 Peru
Miami 080
042 Plymouth
Marshall 041
085 Portland
Jay 081
052 Princeton
Gibson 050
086 Rensselaer
Jasper 082
045 Richmond
Wayne 044
043 Rochester
Fulton 042
087 Rushville
Rush 083
053 Seymour
Jackson 051
088 Shelbyville
Shelby 084
038 South Bend
St. Joseph 037
089 Spencer
Owen 085
0-40 Sullivan
Sullivan 039
057 Terre Haute
vigo 055
090 Valparaiso
Porter 062
091 Vincennes
Knox 057
092 Wabash
Wabash 086
-------
INDIANA, cor.r'd
C"l Frank!in
Johnson 069
03" Gary
Lake 036
346 Monticello
White 293
347 Muncie
Delaware 294
093 Warsaw
Kosciusko 087
094 Washington
Davies 088
095 Winchester
Randolph 089
IOWA
009 Ames
Story 009
010 Atlantic
Cass 010
001 Boone
Boone 001
002 Burlington
Des Moines 002
003 Carroll
Carroll 003
004 Cedar Rapids
Linn 004
005 Centerville
Appanoose 005
006 Charles City
Floyd 006
035 Cherokee
Cherokee 03.5
007 Clinton
Clinton 007
008 Council Bluffs
Pottawattamie 008
Oil Creston
Union Oil
MICHIGAN
212 Adrian
Lenawee 194
213 Albion
Calhoun 193
208 Alpena
Alpena 903
209 Ann Arbor
Washtenaw 191
214 Bad Axe
Huron 195
211 Battle Creek
Calhoun 193
012 Davenport
Scott 012
013 Des Moines
Polk 013
033 Dubuque
Dubuque 033
014 Esterville
Emmet 014
015 Fairfield
Jefferson 015
016 Fort Dodge
Webster 016
017 Fort Madison
Lee 017
018 Iowa City
Johnson 018
019 Keokuk
Lee 017
020 LeMars
Plymouth 020
021 Marshalltown
Marshall 021
022 Mason City
Cerro Gordo 022
224 Grand Rapids
Kent 204
225 Greenville
Montcalm 205
226 Hillsdale
Hillsdale 206
199 Holland
Ottawa 181
200 Houghton
Houghton 182
201 Ionia
Ionia 183
023 Mount Pleasant
Amery 023
024 Muscatine
Muscatine 024
025 Newton
Jasper 025
026 Oelwein
Fayette 026
027 Oskaloosa
Mahaska 027
028 Ottumwa
Wapello 028
029 Shenandoah
Page 901
034 Sioux City
Woodbury 034
030 Spencer
Clay 030
338 Vinton
Benton 286
339 Washington
Washington 287
031 Waterloo
Blackhawk 031
032 Webster City
Hamilton 032
237 Monroe
Monroe 216
238 Mount Pleasant
Isabella 217
210 Mt. Clemens
Macomb 904
203 Muskegon
Muskegon 185
239 Niles
Berrien 196
240 Owosso
Shiawassee 219
-------
MICHIGAN, cor.c'd
198 Bay City
Bay 180
215 Benton Harbor
Bernen 196
216 Big Rapids
Mecosta 197
217 Cadillac
Wexford 198
218 Cheboygan
Cheboygan 199
219 Coldwater
Branch 200
197 Detroit
Wayne 179
220 Dowagiac
Cass' 201
221 Escanaba
Delta 202
222 Flint
Genesee 203
223 Grand Haven
Ottawa 181
MINNESOTA
098 Albert Lea
Freeborn 092
099 Austin
Mower 093
100 Bemidji
Beltrami 094
101 Brainerd
Crow Wing 095
102 Crookston
Polk 096
103 Duluth
St. Louis 100
097 Fairmont
Martin 091
104 Faribault
Rice 098
OHIO
119 Akron
Summit 113
129 Alliance
Stark 121
130 Ashland
Athens 122
227 Iron Mountain
Dickinson 207
228 Ironwood
Gogebic 208
202 Jackson
Jackson 184
229 Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo 209
230 Lansing
Ingham 210
231 Ludington
Mason 211
232 Manistee
Manistee 212
233 Marquette
Marquette 213
234 Marshall
Calhoun 192
235 Menominee
Menominee 214
236 Midland
Midland 215
105 Fergus Falls
Otter Tail 099
106 Hibbing
St. Louis 100
107 International Falls
Koochiching 101
108 Mankato
Blue Earth 102
109 Marshall
Lyon 103
110 Minneapolis
Hennepin 104
111 New Ulm
Brown 105
112 Owatonna
Steele 106
145 Fairborn
Greene 135
146 Findlay
Hancock 136
147 Fostoria
Seneca 137
241 Petoskey
Emmet 220
204 Pontiac
Oakland 186
205 Port Huron
St. Clair 187
335 Royal Oak
Oakland 902
242 Saginaw
Saginaw 221
243 Sault Ste. Marie
Chippewa 222
244 South Haven
Van Buren 224
206 Sturgis
St. Joseph 188
245 Three Rivers
St. Joseph 188
207 Traverse City
Grand Traverse 189
246 Ypsilanti
Washtenaw 190
113 Red Wing
Goodhue 107
114 Rochester
Olmsted 108
333 St. Cloud
Stearns 089
115 St. Paul
Ramsey 109
116 Stillwater
Washington 110
117 Virginia
St. Louis 100
118 Willmar
Kandiyohi 111
096 Winona
Winona 090
171 Newark
Licking 158
172 Niles
Trumbull 159
173 Norwalk
Huron 160
-------
OHIO, con-'i
343 Ashcabula
Ashtabula 129
120 Athens
Athens 122
176 Beaver Creek
Greene 135
121 Bellefontane
Logar. 296
350 Bellevue
Huron 160
351 Bowling Green
Wood 297
352 Bryan
Williams 298
353 Bucyrus
Crawford 299
354 Cambridge
Guernsey 300
131 Canton
Stark 121
122 Celina
Mercer 114
132 Chardon
Geauga 123
133 Chillicothe
Ross 124
134 Cincinnati
Hamilton 125
135 Circleville
Pickaway 126
136 Cleveland
Cuyahoga 127
137 Columbus
Franklin 128
138 Conneaut
Ashtabula 129
123 Coshocton
Coshocton 115
139 Dayton
Montgomery 130
124 Defiance
Defiance 116
140 Delaware
Delaware 131
141 Delphos
Allen 132
143 East Liverpool
Columbiana 133
144 Elyria
Lorain 134
148 Fremont
Sandusky 138
149 Gallon
Crawford 139
150 Gallipolis
Gallia 140
151 Greenfield
Highland 141
152 Greenville
Darke 142
153 Hamilton
Butler 143
154 Ironton
Lawrence 144
155 Kent
Portage 145
156 Kenton
Hardin 146
157 Lancaster
Fairfield 147
125 Lima
Allen 117
158 Lisbon
Columbiana 133
159 Logan
Hocking 149
126 London
Madison 118
160 Lorain
Lorain 134
161 Mansfield
Richland 150
162 Marietta
Washington 151
163' Marion
Marion 152
164 Martins Ferry
Belmont 153
165 Marysville
Union 154
166 Massillon
Stark 121
167 Medina
Medina 155
168 Middleton
Butler 143
169 Mount Vernon
Knox 156
170 Napolean
Henry 157
174 Piqua
Miami 161
175 Pomeroy
Meigs 162
176 Port Clinton
Ottawa 163
177 Portsmouth
Scioto 164
179 Salem
Columbiana 133
180 Sandusky
Erie 166
181 Shelby
Richland 150
182 Sidney
Shelby 168
183 Springfield
Clark 169
178 St. Marys
Auglaize 120
184 Steubenville
Jefferson 170
185 Tiffin
Seneca 137
186 Toledo
Lucas 171
187 Troy
Miami 161
188 Upper Sandusky
Wyandot 172
127 Urbana
Champaign 119
189 Van Wert
Van Wert 173
128 Wapakoneta
Auglaize 120
190 Warren
Trumbull 159
193 Washington
Fayette 176
334 Willoughby
Lake 112
191 Wilmington
Clinton 174
192 Wooster
Wayne 175
194 Xenia
Greene 135
195 Youngstown
Mahoning 177
-------
OHIO, cor.-'d
WISCONSIN
321 Ar.tigo
Langlade 274
322 Appleton
Outagamie 275
304 Ashland
Ashland 400
300 Baraboo
Sauk 258
336 Beaver Dam
Dodge 262
305 Beloit
Rock 263
323 Chippewa Falls
Chippewa 276
306 Eau Claire
Eau Claire 264
311 Fond du Lac
Fond du Lac 913
310 Fort Atkinson
Jefferson 910
303 Green Bay
Brown 261
142 New Philadelphia
Tuscarawas 309
324 Janesville
Rock 263
325 Kenosha
Kenosha 277
317 La Crosse
La Crosse 270
302 Madison
Dane 260
326 Manitowoc
Manitowoc 278
312 Marinette
Marinette 915
313 Marshfield
Wood 259
327 Milwaukee
Milwaukee 279
328 Monroe
Green 280
320 Oshkosh
Winnebago 273
318 Portage
Columbia 271
196 Zanesville
Muskingum 178
319 Racine
Racine 272
314 Rhinelander
Oneida 267
315 Shawano
Shawano 268
329 Sheboygan
Sheboygan 281
307 Stevens Point
Portage 265
308 Superior
Douglas 266
309 Watertown
Dodge 262
316 Waukesha
Waukesha 269
330 Wausau
Marathon 282
331 West Bend
Washington 283
301 Wisconsin Rapids
Wood 259
-------
_ - •• —
SECTION CB: DAILY NEWSPAPER CODES
IOWA
Code Community and Newspaper
9 Ames Tribune
10 Atlantic News Telegraph
1 Boone News Republic
2 Burlington Hawk Eye
3 Carrol Times Herald
4 Cedar Rapids Gazette
5 Centerville lowegian
6 Charles City Press
35 Cherokee Daily Times
7 Clinton Herald
8 Council Bluffs Nonpareil
11 Creston News Advertiser
12 Davenport Quad City Times
13 Des Moines Register
33 Dubugue Telegraph Herald
14 Estherville News
15 Fairfield Ledger
16 Fort Dodge Messenger
17 Fort Madison Democrat
18 Iowa City Press Citizen
19 Keokuk Gate City
20 Le Mars Sentinel
21 Marshalltown Times Republican
22 Mason City Globe Gazette
23 Mount Pleasant News
24 Muscatine Journal
25 Newton News
26 Oelwein Register
27 Oskaloosa Herald
28 Ottumwa Courier
29 Shenandoah Sentinel
34 Sioux City Journal
30 Spencer Daily Reporter
345 Vinton Cedar Valley Daily Times
346 Washington Evening Journal
31 Waterloo Courier
32 Webster City Freeman Journal
ILLINOIS
Code Community and Newspaper
215 Alton Telegraph
216 Aurora Beacon News
217 Beardstown Illinoisan Star
214 Belleville News Democrat
218 Belvedere Republican
219 Benton News
-------
ILLINOIS, cont'd
Code Community and Newspaper
208 Bloomington Pantagraph
220 Cartton Ledger
221 Carbondale Southern Illinoisian
222 Carmi Times
223 Centralia Sentinel
224 Champaign News Gazatte
225 Charleston Times Courier
207 Chicago Defender
206 Chicago Herald
203 Chicago Southtown Economist
205 Chicago Sun Times
204 Chicago Tribune
226 Clinton Journal
210 Crystal Lake Northwest Herald
227 Danville Commerical News
229 DeKalb Chronicle
228 Decatur Herald Review
209 Dixon Telegraph
230 DuQuoin Call
231 Edwardsville Intelligencer
232 Effingham News
233 Eldorado Journal
234 Elgin Courier News
235 Flora Clay County Advocate
236 Freeport Journal Standard
212 Galesburg Register Mail
237 Harrisonburg Register
238 Jacksonville Journal Courier
211 Joliet Herald News
239 Kankakee Journal
240 Kewanee Star Courier
241 LaSalle News Tribune
242 Lawrenceville Record
243 Libertyville Southwest News Sun
363 Lincoln Courier
370 Litchfield News Herald
371 Macornb Journal
372 Marion Daily Republican
373 Mattoon Journal Gazette
382 Monmouth Review Atlas
374 Morris Herald
375 Mount Carmel Republican Register
376 Olney Daily Mail
377 Ottawa Daily Times
244 Paris Beacon News
245 Paxton Record
246 Pekin Times
247 Peoria Journal Star
248 Pontiac Leader
249 Quincy Herald Whig
250 Robinson News
-------
ILLINOIS, cont'd
Code Community and Newspaper
251 Rock Island Argus
252 RocJcford Register Star
253 Shelbyville Union
254 Springfield State Journal
255 Sterling Gazette News
256 Streator Times Press
213 Taylorville Breeze Courier
257 Watseka Times Republic
258 Waukegan News Sun
259 West Frankfort American
260 Wheaton Journal
INDIANA
Code Community and Newspaper
347 Anderson Herald Bulletin
348 Auburn Evening Star
73 Bedford Times Mail
74 Bicknell Knox County News
349 Bicknell Morning News Report
58 Bloomfield World
59 Bloomington Herald Times
60 Bluffton News Banner
61 Brazil Times
62 Chesterton Tribune
79 Clifton News Banner
70 Clinton Daily Clintonian
71 Columbia City Post Mail
63 Columbus The Republican
64 Connorsville News Examiner
65 Crawfordsville Journal Review
80 Decatur Daily Democrat
36 Elkhart Truth
37 Elwood Call Leader
38 Evansville Courier
350 Evansville Press
351 Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
69 Fort Wayne News Sentinel
78 Frankfort Times
39 Franklin Journal
91 Gary Post Tribune
40 Goshen News
42 Greencastle Banner Graphic
41 Greenfield Daily Reporter
82 Greensburg Daily News
90 Hammond Times
43 Hartford City News Times
44 Huntington Herald Press
358 Indianapolis News
93 Indianapolis Star
-------
INDIANA, COnt'd
Code Community and Newspaper
95 Jasper Herald
45 Jeifersonville News
46 Kendallville News Sun
83 Kokomo Tribune
66 La Porte Herald Argus
47 Lafayette Journal Courier
48 Lebanon Reporter
49 Linton Citizen
50 Logansport Pharos Tribune
51 Madison Courier
353 Marinsville Daily Reporter
352 Marion Chronicle Tribune
76 Michigan City New Dispatch
354 Monticello Herald Journal
355 Muncie Star & Evening Press
356 New Albany Ledger Tribune
357 New Castle Courier Times
81 Noblesville Daily Ledger
52 Peru Tribune
96 Plymouth Pilot news
53 Portland Commercial Review
67 Princeton Daily Clarion
54 Rensselaer Republican
77 Richmond Palladium Item
75 Rochester Sentinel
55 Rushville Republican
68 Seymour Daily Tribune
56 Shelbyville News
92 South Bend Tribune
57 Spencer World
94 Sullivan Daily Times
72 TerreHaute Tribune Star
359 Tipton County Tribune
84 Valparaiso Vidette Messenger
85 Vincennes Sun Commerical
86 Wabash Plain Dealer
87 Warsaw Times Union
88 Washington Times Herald
89 Winchester News Gazette
MICHIGAN
Code Community and Newspaper
276 Adrian Telegram
277 Albion Record
272 Alpena News
273 Ann Arbor News
278 Bad Axe Daily Tribune
275 Badtle Creek Enquirer
262 Bay City Times
-------
MICHIGAN, cont'd
Code Community and Newspaper
279 Benton Harbour Herald Palladium
280 Bia Rapids Pioneer
281 Cadillac News
282 Cheboygan Tribune
283 Coldwater Reporter
261 Detroit Free Press
378 Detroit News
284 Dowagiac News
285 Escanaba Press
286 Flint Journal
287 Grand Haven Tribune
288 Grand Rapids Press
289 Greenville Daily News
290 Hillsdale News
263 Holland Sentinel
264 Houghton Daily Mining Gazette
265 Ionia Sentinel Standard
291 Iron Mountain News
292 Ironwood Globe
266 Jackson Citizen Patriot
293 Kalamazoo Gazette
294 Lansing State Journal
295 Ludington News
296 Manistee News Advocate
297 Marquette Mining Journal
298 Marshall Chronicle
299 Menominee Herald Leader
300 Midland Daily News
301 Monroe News
302 Mount Pleasant Sun
274 Mt. Clemens Macomb Daily
267 Muskegon Chronicle
303 Niles Star
304 Owosso Argus Press
305 Petoskey News Review
268 Pontiac Oakland Press
269 Port Huron Times Herald
306 Royal Oak Tribune
307 Saginaw News
308 Sault St. Marie News
309 South Haven Daily
270 Sturgis Journal
310 Three Rivers Commercial News
271 Traverse City Record Eagle
311 Ypsilanti Press
-------
MINNESOTA
Code Community and Newspaper
100 Albert Lea Tribune
101 Austin Herald
102 Bemidji Pioneer
103 Brainerd Dispatch
104 Crookston Times
106 Duluth News Tribune
99 Fairmont Sentinel
107 Faribualt News
108 Fergus Falls Journal
109 Hibbing Tribune
110 International Falls Journal
111 Mankoto Free Press
112 Marshall Independent
113 Minneapolis Star Tribune
114 New Ulm Journal
115 Owatonna People Press
116 Red Wing Republican Eagle
117 Rochester Post Tribune
97 St. Cloud Times
118 St. Paul Pioneer Press
119 Stillwater Gazette
120 Virginia Mesabi News
121 Willmar West Central Tribune
98 Winona Daily News
OHIO
Code Community and Newspaper
123 Akron Beacon Journal
133 Alliance Review
134 Ashland
366 Ashtabula Star Banner
124 Athens Messenger
360 Beaver Creek Daily News
125 Bellefontaine Examiner
361 Bellevue Gazette
362 Bowling Green Sentinel Tribune
383 Bryan Times
364 Bucyrus Telegraph Forum
365 Cambridge Daily Jeffersonian
135 Canton Repository
126 Celina Standard
136 Chardon Geauga Times Leader
137 Chillicothe Gazette
138 Cincinnati Enquirer
368 Cincinnati Post
139 Circlevilie Herald
140 Cleveland Plain Dealer
141 Columbus Dispatch
142 Conneaut News Herald
-------
OHIO, confd
Code Community and Newspaper
127 Coshocton Tribune
143 Dayton News
128 Defiance Crescent News
144 Delaware Gazette
145 Delphos Herald
147 East Liverpool Review
148 Elyria Chronicle Telegram
149 Fairborn Herald
150 Findlay Courier
151 Fostoria Review Times
154 Gallipolis Tribune
155 Greenfield Times
156 Greenville Advocate
157 Hamilton Journal News
158 Ironton Tribune
160 Kent Record Courier
161 Keton News
162 Lancaster Eagle Gazette
129 Lima News
163 Lisbon Morning Journal
164 Logan News
130 London Maison Press
165 Lorain Journal
166 Mansfield News Journal
167 Marietta Times
168 Marion Star
169 Martins Ferry Times Leader
170 Marysville Journal Tribune
171 Massillon Independent
172 Medina County Gazette
173 Middletown Journal
174 Mount Vernon News
175 Napoleon Northwest Signal
146 New Philadelphia Times Reporter
176 Newark Advocate
177 Niles Times
178 Norwalk Reflector
179 Piqua Call
180 Pomeroy Sentinel
181 Port Clinton News Herald
182 Portsmouth Times
184 Salem News
185 Sandusky Register
187 Shelby Glove
188 Sidney News
189 Springfield News Sun
183 St. Marys Leader
190 Steubenville Herald Star
191 Tiffin Advertiser Tribune
192 Toledo Blade
193 Troy News
-------
OHIO, cont'd
Code Commur.ity and Newspaper
194 Upper Sandusky Chief Union
131 Urbana Daily Citizen
195 Var? Wert Times Bulliten
132 Wapakoneta Daily News
196 Warren Tribune Chronicle
199 Washington Record Herald
122 Willoughby News Herald
197 Wilmington News Journal
198 Wooster Record
200 Xenia Gazette
201 Youngstown Vindicator
202 Zanesville Times Recorder
WISCONSIN
Code Community and Newspaper
332 Antigo Journal
333 Appleton Post Crescent
312 Ashland Daily Press
313 Baraboo News Republic
379 Beaver Dam Daily Citizen
314 Beloit Daily News
334 Chippewa Falls Herald Telegram
315 Eau Claire Leader Telegram
317 Fond du Lac Reporter
316 Fort Atkinson Daily Jefferson County Union
380 Green Bay News Chronicle
381 Green Bay Press Gazette
335 Janesville Gazette
336 Kenosha News
318 La Crosse Tribune
337 Madison Capital Times
331 Madison Wisconsin State Journal
338 Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter
319 Marinette Eagle Star
320 Marshfield News Herald
340 Milwaukee Journal
339 Milwaukee Sentinel
341 Monroe Times
321 Oshkosh Northwestern
322 Portage Daily Register
323 Racine Journal Times
324 Rhinelander Daily News
325 Shawano Leader
342 Sheboygan Press
326 Stevens Point Journal
327 Superior Evening Telegram
328 Watertown Daily Times
329 Waukesha County Freeman
343 Wausau Herald
344 West Bend News
330 Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune
-------
SECTION CC: RISK SIGNALS
RISK SIGNALS are words or phrases that indicate some danger is present, ev=
if that danger is not a main point of the item or its frame. Examples of
vords that are risk signals are the following and any close synonyms used :
trie context of_ human health:
communicable noxious
contagious perilous
contaminated
danger poisonous
deadly risky
epidemic threat
fear
harmful toxic
hazardous unsafe
ill-effects virulent
infectious warning
miasmic worry
-------
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