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Content analysis to document publicly valued ecosystem services of rivers and streams
Citation:
Weber, M., S. Caplan, AND P. Ringold. Content analysis to document publicly valued ecosystem services of rivers and streams. ACES - A Community on Ecosystem Services, Washington, DC, December 08 - 12, 2014.
Impact/Purpose:
This research seeks to define Final Ecosystem Goods and Services of rivers and streams by analyzing media publications. This product offers a different source of information from prior focus group and interview research on the same topic. The product also demonstrates social science techniques that can be applied to secondary data to gain insights that could be used for other environmental research questions. Results document not only prevalent attributes of rivers and streams, but also motivations, including recreation, public health, or preservation of resources for future generations. Comparisons between general and environmentalist news can be made, as well as co-occurrence of specific river and stream attributes with specific motivations.
Description:
While much ecosystem services research focuses on analysis such as mapping and/or valuation, fewer research efforts are directed toward in-depth understanding of the specific ecological quantities people value. Ecosystem service monitoring and analysis efforts and communications could be enhanced by such knowledge. For example, small changes in the way ecosystems are described can impact relevancy to the general public and improve the reliability of valuation estimates. Research on river and stream attributes considered important by the public is particularly important for nonmarket ecosystem services, since the characteristics that are valued cannot be readily observed as with goods and services bought and sold in traditional markets. We conducted content analysis of media publications to document the breadth and frequency with which various measureable attributes of rivers and streams appear in news outlets. Media publications consumed by a given audience are one way to gather insight on perspectives held by that audience. Due to the potential impacts of material written for different audiences, two pools of river and stream news are analyzed: general public sources; and environmentalist sources. Content analysis allows for a team-based approach through the use of standardized codes. These codes are systematically linked to passages that reference a concept (e.g. “Water Supply Scarcity” or “Recreational Contact Health Risk”) allowing researchers to compile and analyze all examples of a specific code. The initial codebook was based on prior focus group and interview research with the general public in two separate locations of the US on the same research topic. Coding of content during the pilot phase allowed for refinement of standardized codes and assessment of inter-coder reliability. During the operational phase of the project, two independent coders evaluated a large sample of articles from both general public and environmentalist pools. Results document not only prevalent attributes of rivers and streams, but also motivations, including recreation, public health, or preservation of resources for future generations. Comparisons between general and environmentalist news can be made, as well as co-occurrence of specific river and stream attributes with specific motivations. The project demonstrates a qualitative social science research technique that can be applied to draw insights from preexisting data.