News frames are the interpretations and emphases in the presentation of complex issues that privilege certain understandings over others. We take the case of the framing of economic inequality in the news in order to make an empirical contribution and a conceptual contribution. The framing of economic inequality in news coverage is important to understand as news frames can shape public opinion and subsequently policy responses to inequality. There is no research we are aware of that documents how economic inequality is framed in the news. We compiled a dataset of 2109 news articles, published between 2000 and 2014, about economic inequality, and conducted a detailed content analysis. Empirically, we document how inequality was framed as an issue, specifically whether it was framed as a social problem with negative consequences, and what its causes, consequences, and solutions were. Conceptually, we also address an important gap in knowledge about the determinants of news frames. Research about how news frames are shaped by contextual factors in the production of news is uncertain about which factors matter and to what extent. The dataset has a set of features that allow us to simultaneously examine a number of potential determinants of news frames. Our data allow us to compare the relative influences on news coverage of economic inequality of (1) national context, (2) the political leaning of newspapers, (3) changing economic conditions, and (4) social movement efforts. Of these four factors, we find that only the Occupy movement influenced the volume of attention and the identification of economic inequality as a problem with negative consequences. National context, political leaning, and change in economic conditions had much more limited, or no, influence. Following the emergence of the Occupy movement, attention to economic inequality increased and remained higher than before. However, despite the clear effects of the Occupy movement on problem identification, news coverage of the causes and solutions to economic inequality did not significantly shift. We, therefore, find that social movement activity had the clearest influence on news frames, but the observed effect in this case was superficial rather than detailed.
Gaseous elemental mercury (Hg0) concentrations in the atmosphere have been increasing due to anthropogenic activities since the onset of colonial mining in the 17th century. However, accurate measurements of atmospheric Hg, including temporal trends, are mostly limited to recent decades. Natural environmental archives including tree rings show promise for reconstructing atmospheric concentrations of Hg0. In this paper, we present a new white spruce (Picea glauca) tree-ring Hg record (1696–2005) from the Old Crow Flats in northern Yukon. The record we present shows an increase in tree-ring Hg concentration (a proxy for gaseous Hg0 concentration) between 1748 and 1990 at a rate of +3.3% per year. A decrease in measured Hg is observed at the end of the record between 1990 and 2005, which may reflect the success of international regulations to reduce emissions including Hg. When compared with two other sites (a continental and marine location) in northwest Canada, there is not only some coherence in Hg trends at the regional scale but also some unique differences, suggesting that the location may influence atmospheric Hg0 available for assimilation. Further local factors within a site, such as soil moisture, may also affect the efficiency of this uptake. Results from this study highlight the need to better understand intra-site and inter-site differences in measured tree-ring Hg, and we recommend the continued development of a spatially resolved tree-ring Hg network in the northern boreal forest. Such records will be useful for developing better atmospheric Hg and global Hg models.
Surface air temperature (SAT) and precipitation in Prairie (Western) and Maritime (Eastern) Canada are influenced by the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), respectively. However effects of ENSO and AMO on major crop yield in Canada is yet to be understood. Here we investigate the longest record (1908–2017) of wheat, barley, and oat yield as well as its associated risk with summer (May-September) ENSO and AMO interannual and multidecadal variability in Prairie and Maritime, respectively. We used generalized linear models with autocorrelative residuals to assess region- and crop-specific associations between ENSO, AMO, surface air temperatures, and precipitation on crop yield. After adjusting for covariates our models show that a positive phase of the AMO (in comparison to negative phase) significantly reduces the risk of Maritime crop yields by ~3–12%, with both extreme heat and wet precipitation found to be significant risk factors for reducing yields. Summer El Niño or La Niña was found to have a small, insignificant effect on yield in the Prairie region, with no effects found on crops in Maritimes. Therefore, analysis of Atlantic oceanic variability can offer insight into major crop yield variability in Maritime Canada.
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