Working paper coming soon!
Transitioning to renewable energy resources is crucial to meet energy consumption demands while mitigating the effects of fossil fuel reliance. Large scale renewable energy (RE) projects, such as wind and solar farms, can support growing energy demand while requiring little change in household behavior. Recent research has documented how local opposition has led to the delay and cancellation of many RE projects, but the sources of this opposition are not well understood. Concurrently, there is variation in the ways that news broadcast networks discuss RE projects, providing selective information to viewers that may sow the seeds for both local opposition and support. Considering that individuals use news media as a central resource for information, this study asks: how does news coverage of sustainable energy topics influence individual perceptions towards large-scale RE projects? Through the analysis of a nationally representative survey of 4,000 US adults paired with transcripts of nearly 250,000 news broadcasts from Fox News and CNN, we find the choice of network explains variance in support for RE projects, potentially stemming from the framing of these projects through different rhetorics across the sources. We use a qualitatively informed deep learning topic model, finding that while both networks highlight the economy and energy (in)dependence from foreign sources, Fox News pairs this with strong pro-fossil fuel and anti-RE rhetoric, framing the transition to RE as “risky.” This framing aligns with results from a structural equation model that reveals a pattern of strong opposition to RE projects across Fox News viewers in the national survey. Planning successful RE projects depends on surfacing drivers of support and opposition, and this analysis reveals communication strategies which highlight the opportunity for green jobs and energy independence from foreign sources provided by large-scale domestic RE projects have the potential to increase support.
Madison Lore 