Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute, University of California, Merced, USA.
School of Engineering, University of California, Merced, 5200 N. Lake Road, Merced, CA 95348, USA.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Oct 10;738:139529. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139529. Epub 2020 May 20.
Groundwater is a common pool resource that supports agriculture, human communities, and the environment. Public participation in common pool natural resources management can be affected by media representation of stakeholders and perceptions of identity as a stakeholder. Newspaper media has an outsized influence on framing subject matter, expertise, organizations, and who should participate. Media shapes individual, local, and regional perspectives around resource management and defines potential solutions to natural resources management. This study analyzes media coverage about California's new Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) to understand impacts on public participation in common pool natural resources management and to identify represented stakeholders and solutions involved in groundwater sustainability. A total of 365 newspaper articles were collected from California newspapers in three readership locations. We also searched for representation of SGMA in Spanish-language publications. Article characteristics were analyzed through qualitative content analysis and quantitative nonparametric analysis. Results indicate bias for featuring agricultural industry, politician, and water managers' voices. Solutions for managing water resources were focused on new supply, demand reduction and infrastructure investment, though novel solutions were also presented. Most newspaper articles included few stakeholders and solutions, illustrating isolated, short narratives about a common pool resource. The trends and gaps in representation in California media coverage may contribute to the public's low levels of engagement in groundwater planning.
地下水是一种常见的公共资源，为农业、人类社区和环境提供支持。公众对公共池塘自然资源管理的参与可能受到媒体对利益相关者的描述以及对作为利益相关者的身份的看法的影响。报纸媒体对主题、专业知识、组织以及应该由谁参与的问题的框架具有巨大的影响力。媒体塑造了个人、地方和地区对资源管理的看法，并定义了自然资源管理的潜在解决方案。本研究分析了关于加利福尼亚州新的《可持续地下水管理法案》（SGMA）的媒体报道，以了解其对公共参与公共池塘自然资源管理的影响，并确定参与地下水可持续性的代表性利益相关者和解决方案。共从加利福尼亚州的三份报纸中收集了 365 篇报纸文章，这三份报纸在三个阅读地点发行。我们还搜索了西班牙语出版物中对 SGMA 的报道。通过定性内容分析和定量非参数分析对文章特征进行了分析。结果表明，媒体偏向于报道农业产业、政治家和水管理者的声音。水资源管理的解决方案侧重于新的供应、需求减少和基础设施投资，尽管也提出了新的解决方案。大多数报纸文章只提到了少数几个利益相关者和解决方案，说明了对公共池塘资源的孤立、简短的叙述。加利福尼亚州媒体报道中代表性的趋势和差距可能导致公众对地下水规划的参与度较低。
