Katherine A. McComas

Telling Stories About Global Climate Change Measuring the Impact of Narratives on Issue Cycles

A theory of cyclical patterns in media coverage of environmental issues must account for more than intrinsic qualities of the issues themselves: Narrative factors must be considered. A content analysis of The New York Times and The Washington Post stories from 1980 to 1995 shows how media construct narratives about global warming and how these narratives may influence attention cycles. Empirically, the frequency of newspaper coverage shows cyclical attention to global warming. The content analysis further reveals that implied danger and consequences of global warming gain more prominence on the upswing of newspaper attention, whereas controversy among scientists receives greater attention in the maintenance phase. The economics of dealing with global warming also receive greater attention during the maintenance and downside of the attention cycle. The discussion offers a narrative explanation and suggests the outcome of the “master story” of global climate change may discourage future attention to global warming.

Defining moments in risk communication research: 1996-2005

Ten years ago, scholars suggested that risk communication was embarking on a new phase that would give increased attention to the social contexts that surround and encroach on public responses to risk information. A decade later, many researchers have answered the call, with several defining studies examining the social and psychological influences on risk communication. This article reviews risk communication research appearing in the published literature since 1996. Among studies, social trust, the social amplification of risk framework, and the affect heuristic figured prominently. Also common were studies examining the influence of risk in the mass media. Among these were content analyses of media coverage of risk, as well as investigations of possible effects resulting from coverage. The use of mental models was a dominant method for developing risk message content. Other studies examined the use of risk comparisons, narratives, and visuals in the production of risk messages. Research also examined how providing information about a risks severity, social norms, and efficacy influenced communication behaviors and intentions to follow risk reduction measures. Methods for conducting public outreach in health risk communication rounded out the literature.

The Function of Credibility in Information Processing for Risk Perception

This study examines how credibility affects the way people process information and how they subsequently perceive risk. Three conceptual areas are brought together in this analysis: the psychometric model of risk perception, Eagly and Chaikens heuristic-systematic information processing model, and Meyers credibility index. Data come from a study of risk communication in the circumstance of state health department investigations of suspected cancer clusters (five cases, N = 696). Credibility is assessed for three information sources: state health departments, citizen groups, and industries involved in each case. Higher credibility for industry and the state directly predicts lower risk perception, whereas high credibility for citizen groups predicts greater risk perception. A path model shows that perceiving high credibility for industry and state-and perceiving low credibility for citizen groups-promotes heuristic processing, which in turn is a strong predictor of lower risk perception. Alternately, perceiving industry and the state to have low credibility also promotes greater systematic processing, which consistently leads to perception of greater risk. Between a one-fifth and one-third of the effect of credibility on risk perception is shown to be indirectly transmitted through information processing.

Source credibility in environmental health-risk controversies: application of Meyer's credibility index.

This article applies an existing five-item index for measuring source credibility in the context of environmental health-risk controversy. Survey data were gathered in five upstate New York communities facing environmental health-risk issues. Analysis of the five case studies and a combined dataset (N = 870) show that the credibility index was consistently reliable across all applications. Use of the resulting index is demonstrated through a comparison of the credibility of the New York State Department of Health (active in each case), the industries associated with each case, and the newspaper providing coverage of each case. The credibility index was used to predict risk judgments in a structural equation model. Overall, the analysis demonstrated that the credibility index performed consistently well across the five cases and illuminated important differences in each. As such, the index should be a useful addition to many environmental health and risk communication studies.

Ten most important accomplishments in risk analysis, 1980-2010.

, a group of your editorsengaged in a process to select the 10 most importantaccomplishments in risk analysis. The article that fol-lows is the product of this process.Some preliminary decisions were that we wouldreachouttothefullmembershipfornominations,fo-cus on the period 1980 to 2010, and accept nomina-tionsforcontributions totheory, methods, and appli-cations. Also, we focused on accomplishments thataddress health, safety, and the environment, whichhas been our tradition.

Using Narratives to Think About Environmental Attitude and Behavior: An Exploratory Study

This article develops an exploratory technique for assessing environmental concern using narratives. The technique is compared to traditional techniques for assessing concern, such as measures related to the new environmental paradigm (NEP). A national survey asked respondents to rate outcomes of a story with environmental consequences as negative or positive. Responses tapped distinct dimensions of concern from the NEP. Narrative responses also added significantly to models predicting variance in environmental activism.

Motivation for Health Information Seeking and Processing About Clinical Trial Enrollment

Low patient accrual in clinical trials poses serious concerns for the advancement of medical science in the United States. Past research has identified health communication as a crucial step in overcoming barriers to enrollment. However, few communication scholars have studied this problem from a sociopsychological perspective to understand what motivates people to look for or pay attention to information about clinical trial enrollment. This study applies the model of Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) to this context of health decision making. By recognizing the uncertainties embedded in clinical trials, we view clinical trial enrollment as a case study of risk. With data from a random-digit-dial telephone survey of 500 adults living in the United States, we used structural equation modeling to test the central part of the RISP model. In particular, we examined the role of optimistic feelings, as a type of positive affect, in motivating information seeking and processing. Our results indicated that rather than exerting an indirect influence on information seeking through motivating a psychological need for more information, optimistic feelings have more direct relationships with information seeking and processing. Similarly, informational subjective norms also exhibit a more direct relationship with information seeking and processing. These results suggest merit in applying the RISP model to study health decision making related to clinical trial enrollment. Our findings also render practical implications on how to improve communication about clinical trial enrollment.

Television's Portrayal of the Environment: 1991–1995

This paper examines data from an ongoing project which content analyzes televisions messages about environmental issues. The data are weeklong samples taken yearly from prime-time network television programs sampled in the Boston, Massachusetts, and Ithaca, New York, areas. We analyze the environment as a “theme” in prime-time entertainment programming, recording its prevalence in comparison to other themes. A multiple dimensional scaling shows how the environment appears in relation to other themes on television. Also, we analyze “episodes” in television programs which have specific environmental content. Our data show that attention to environmental issues has been decreasing in our sample years 1991 to 1995.

Environmental Content in Prime-Time Network TV's Non-News Entertainment and Fictional Programs

Thirty years after the first Earth Day celebration, how integrated are environmental values in everyday American life? One measure of integration is how often environmental topics are incorporated into the programs of television, todays most visible storyteller. This study offers results from an ongoing content analysis tracking televisions attention to the environment in prime-time, network, non-news entertainment and fictional programs. The results indicate a decreasing amount of attention given to environmental topics during annually sampled weeks over 6 years. When present, environmental topics occur more often during programs having nature themes, which are relatively infrequent, than during programs having home and family or law enforcement themes, which are much more common. The conclusions suggest that, despite some noteworthy exceptions, environmental topics are largely absent from U.S. televisions prime-time network non-news entertainment and fictional programs.Thirty years after the first Earth Day celebration, how integrated are environmental values in everyday American life? One measure of integration is how often environmental topics are incorporated into the programs of television, todays most visible storyteller. This study offers results from an ongoing content analysis tracking televisions attention to the environment in prime-time, network, non-news entertainment and fictional programs. The results indicate a decreasing amount of attention given to environmental topics during annually sampled weeks over 6 years. When present, environmental topics occur more often during programs having nature themes, which are relatively infrequent, than during programs having home and family or law enforcement themes, which are much more common. The conclusions suggest that, despite some noteworthy exceptions, environmental topics are largely absent from U.S. televisions prime-time network non-news entertainment and fictional programs.

Media Coverage of Conflicts of Interest in Science

Some scientists are concerned that too much news media coverage of conflicts of interest in science threatens the publics belief in the integrity of the field, whereas other scientists worry that news media do not pay enough attention to conflicts of interest. To examine news media coverage of conflicts of interest in science, we conducted a ten-year content analysis of stories from the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. The results suggest a steady stream of stories highlighting negative aspects of conflicts of interest in science.