Document Type
Presentation
Publication Date
8-1992
Publisher
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Source Publication
AEJMC Annual Convention
Abstract
Based on the conflict/consensus model of Tichenor, Donohue and Olien, we proposed that mass mediated information signalling that local agents are contaminating the local environment and posing health risks is conflict-generating information and, therefore, will be controlled in the interest of community stability. Such control would be expected to vary by community structure. A content analysis of nine months of coverage by 19 newspapers supported the hypothesis that papers in more pluralistic communities were more likely than papers in less pluralistic communities to link contamination from local agents to threats to human health in the community, and to frame stories about contamination from local agents in the context of a problem. Newspapers in less plualistic communities were more likely to frame local contamination in the context of solutions to the problem and were more likely to link contamination to health risks if the contamination were in a distant community. Along with giving support to the conflict/consensus model, the results suggest that (1) people in more homogeneous communities may not be exposed to as much information about local health risks as those in more heterogeneous communities, and (2) research should be conducted into the extent to which audiences are able to infer local or personal health risks from more generic stories about hazards from environmental contamination. Since most of the mass media in the country are small city dailies or broadcast stations, or community weekly newspapers, public information specialists will need to deal commonly with the kinds of community constraints on mass communication about local health risks that were explored in this study.
Recommended Citation
Griffin, Robert J. and Dunwoody, Sharon, "The Effects of Community Pluralism on Press Coverage of Health Risks from Local Environmental Contamination" (1992). College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications. 652.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/comm_fac/652
Comments
Author version. The Effects of Community Pluralism on Press Coverage of Health Risks from Local Environmental Contamination." A Paper presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, annual convention. Montreal, Canada, August 1992. DOI. ©1992 The Author. Used with permission.