Hallie Richie
"Science as Spectacle: an Ontological and Epistemological Content Analysis Studying Media Framing Typology Trends of Online News Media Covering Pollution"
Pollution and its large-scale degrading effects, in addition to a general lack of public scientific media literacy, is plaguing the environment today. Finally, the focus on environmental communication has begun its rise to significance. This research will focus on the truth lost in translation in the move from the scientific field of information to online news sites that claim to be highly factual. With a theoretical framework of media framing in place, the study will analyze the difference in framing typologies used when online news sites cover scientific material. The material stems from either a single scientific study or a large-scale commission produced by a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Focusing specifically on pollution, this study will analyze environmental communication efforts in order to strengthen the field for the future, with an overall aim to improve the publics’ scientific media literacy, in turn promoting public action towards the restoration of the environment. The findings of this research note a difference in framing typologies employed by the online reproductions of the two types of information releases (study vs. commission), as well as identifies patterns found in the analysis of framing typologies indicating how to better the field of environmental communication, with the hope of inspiring public advocacy against the negative effects of pollution.
