PROGRAM | Energy and Environmental Policy

By: Alexander Waegel Chair: John Byrne

ABSTRACT

The development of policy is subject to many different influences. The subjects are often complex and citizens must rely on information provided by third parties in order to participate in the discussion. The news media has traditionally been the primary provider of such information and are counted upon to publish unbiased accounts of events. However, the news media gets information from its own sources and this offers an opportunity for powerful, well-organized groups to influence the presentation of these topics. This is done through the creation and dissemination of constructed narratives, which remove the contexts from facts to present different conclusions. (Barthes, 1957)
Sourcing discusses how the news media may be influenced by powerful organizations providing free, easily published material (Herman, 1988). The 24 hour news cycle, the demand for ratings, and the impossibility of funding independent research journalism for every topic requires them to seek information from sources viewed as reliable and authoritative, such as the government or major corporations. The wealthier and more powerful organizations are better able to provide this large quantity of information in a readily publishable format and thus have the potential to influence the presentation to reflect positively on their positions. As a technologically and politically complex subject, energy policy would be particularly prone to the influence of sourcing.
Hydrogen energy was used as a case study to search for the presence of sourcing. Hydrogen fuels cells offer potential for the reduction of greenhouse gasses and other benefits, but have significant disadvantages as well. While the academic community remained divided on the technology, the G.W. Bush administration offered it unwavering support. The Bush administration and the academic community both released a great deal of information about hydrogen but each set presented a very different outlook.
Articles, press releases, and speeches from three sources were collected: the Bush administration, the New York Times, and Energy Policy. Every paragraph was coded for indicators in five different categories regarding the merits of hydrogen: greenhouse gasses, efficiency, sources, carbon sequestration, and sustainability. Each paragraph was coded for each category as critical, neutral or optimistic and profiles were developed representing each category over time. These profiles were then statistically analyzed to show the correlation between the views in the New York Times and either the Bush administration’s views or those found in Energy Policy.
This analysis showed that the views presented by the New York Times were highly correlated to those published by the Bush administration and the magnitude of the presence of those views could be predicted by the intensity of their usage by the Bush administration. Additionally these views were highly optimistic compared to those presented in Energy Policy, but these more critical views did not significantly influence the presentation of hydrogen by the media until 2006, with the publication of a special issue devoted to hydrogen, which raised their profile and, along with the beginning of the lame duck portion of the Bush presidency, allowed for a more balanced presentation of hydrogen in the New York Times. The presence of sourcing in the hydrogen debate shows that energy policy is subject to this influence and also that its influence may countered by a corresponding increase in the organization of the less powerful voices.

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