Adding Insult to Industry: Alabamian Newspaper Framing of Tennessee River Pollution

Abstract

Media coverage of environmental topics typically reflects the environmental friendliness of the intended audience. When local media covers environmental problems in a historically industrial, non-environmental area, the media must frame the issue in a manner that connects that audience with the problem. In the Tennessee Valley in North Alabama, the environmental problem of river pollution has been in the news in recent years. This research utilizes frame analysis through a content analysis of newspaper articles about river pollution published in Alabama between 2010 and 2018 to determine if the media successfully framed the pollution as an environmental problem. The results of the content analysis indicate that the local media successfully framed the pollution as an environmental problem.