Emotional Tone of Ontario Newspaper Articles on the Health Effects of Industrial Wind Turbines Before and After Policy Change

Abstract

Newspapers are often a primary source of health information for the public about emerging technologies. Information in newspapers can amplify or attenuate readers' perceptions of health risk depending on how it is presented. Five geographically distinct wind energy installations in Ontario, Canada were identified, and newspapers published in their surrounding communities were systematically searched for articles on health effects from industrial wind turbines from May 2007 to April 2011. The authors retrieved 421 articles from 13 community, 2 provincial, and 2 national newspapers. To measure the emotional tone of the articles, the authors used a list of negative and positive words, informed from previous studies as well as from a random sample of newspaper articles included in this study. The majority of newspaper articles (64.6%, n = 272) emphasized negative rather than positive/neutral tone, with community newspapers publishing a higher proportion of negative articles than provincial or national newspapers, χ(2)(2) = 15.1, p < .001. Articles were more likely to be negative when published 2 years after compared with 2 years before provincial legislation to reduce dependence on fossil fuels (the Green Energy Act), χ(2)(3) = 9.7, p < .05. Repeated public exposure to negative newspaper content may heighten readers' health risk perceptions about wind energy.

Emerging Infectious Disease Content in Newspaper Editorials: Public Health Concern or Leadership Issue?

“…Based on the earlier findings on negative tone in the news coverage of certain health risks (Deignan & Hoffman-Goetz, 2015; H. Lee & Len-Rios, 2014), we predict that the tone of the MERS editorials and columns would be negative.…”

“…This attribute of affect can be transferred to health risk perception as well. Therefore, the news coverage on health issues such as the “health effects of industrial wind turbines” (Deignan & Hoffman-Goetz, 2015), “tobacco” (Blake, Kaufman, Lorenzo, & Auguston, 2015), or “obesity” (H. Lee & Len-Rios, 2014) has been examined in terms of the affective tone.…”

“…Lee & Len-Rios, 2014) has been examined in terms of the affective tone. In general, issues involving health risks were depicted negatively, whether about industrial wind turbines (Deignan & Hoffman-Goetz, 2015) or about obesity (H. Lee & Len-Rios, 2014).…”

Explaining the Media's Framing of Renewable Energies: An International Comparison

“…Studies from Australia include Djerf-Pierre et al 2015, Hindmarsh (2014) and Romanach et al (2015). One study examines Canada (Deignan and Hoffman-Goetz, 2015). Djerf-Pierre et al, 2015).…”

“…This includes the potential, demand, supply and usage of energy resources. Previous research has shown that such factors might play a role in how renewable energy is covered in the media (Skjølsvold, 2012;Deignan and Hoffman-Goetz, 2015;Djerf-Pierre et al, 2015). The second factor is a focusing event, in this case the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe.…”