Hot Off the Press: Understanding Patterns in Media Consumption and Relationship to the Red Cedar Watershed

Abstract

In the years that have followed the 2016 presidential election, I’ve found myself asking more questions about media than I ever had prior to that November. What is the role of media in the 21st century? What responsibility does the media have to its readers? Is the media allowed to take sides, or should all reporting remain objective? How should the media portray topics rooted in fact, but that have become politicized? In the era of social media, is traditional media becoming irrelevant? Do people trust the media? Do people really even care what the media has to say?

These questions, when asked about the American media industry as a whole, appear daunting to answer. However, when viewed in the context of a smaller community, such as the Red Cedar Watershed, they become more manageable.

During my time in the LAKES REU program, I sought to address a few of these queries in order to better inform future steps towards tackling the problem of phosphorus pollution in the watershed. Specifically, I asked: what media channels do residents of Dunn County and Rice Lake go to for information; how do patterns of media consumption correlate with perceptions of water quality in Dunn County and Rice Lake; and what is the role of the media in addressing scientific literacy in Dunn County and Rice Lake?

I began my research by investigating the relationship between science and media. I found that seventy one percent of Americans report they are at least somewhat interested in science news, according to a 2017 Pew Research Center Survey. This science news, it turns out, more often than not comes from a source that covers general news, such as a local news station, rather than from a source that specializes in science news.

To see how these national findings played out in the Red Cedar Watershed, I conducted a mixed methods study. I analyzed 26 interview transcripts for themes of scientific literacy, community knowledge sharing, and media usage. These interviews were conducted with journalists, farmers, policy actors, and government employees. I also conducted a local public opinion survey to further investigate findings from qualitative research. In June 2019, 2,000 surveys were equally and randomly distributed to residents of Dunn County and Rice Lake in Barron County via mail. The survey responses made up my quantitative findings.

My qualitative findings indicated a desire by public officials to educate citizens on scientific topics, perceived shift from local to national news markets, perception that environmental news stories will not attract readers, and an emphasis on social media as a potential for increased citizen engagement with science. Quantitative findings revealed that 80.4% of those surveyed consumed at least one form of local Wisconsin media and consuming Wisconsin media was positively correlated with using scientific data, posted warning signs, and news coverage as a way of determining whether local bodies of water were fit for recreational usage. Both survey results and interviews with local journalists indicate potential for social media as a way of sharing scientific knowledge. Twenty-two percent of those surveyed identified social media as the primary way that they stay up to date on community events and happenings compared to 42% who identified news coverage as the primary way they stay up to date.

From these findings, I have a few key takeaways. The first is that people in the Red Cedar Watershed are looking to local news sources for scientific information, indicating that they may be keener to read scientific articles than journalists perceive. Additionally, despite general downward trends in news consumption nationally, local media is still highly utilized by community members in Dunn and Barron County, Wisconsin. Lastly, social media and local news sources both hold many opportunities to share scientific knowledge within communities and should be greater utilized by all stakeholders.

The LAKES REU program focuses on issues of water quality and phosphorus pollution in West-Central Wisconsin. My research this summer, of course, will not magically fix these problems. What I think it will do, however, is better inform the way that we tackle these problems moving forward. Communication between community stakeholders is imperative if we hope to improve the state of our lakes and rivers, and I believe that by utilizing media outlets, we can build stronger channels of communication.

After all, if this experience has taught me anything, it's been about the power of communication and community building. The interdisciplinary nature of the LAKES REU program stresses the need to talk to folks with backgrounds different than your own. The research I conducted would not have been remotely possible without the support and collaboration of my amazing colleagues and mentors.

As for the questions that first got me thinking about media and its role in our everyday lives: I can’t say I have the answers to all of them. What I do know, however, is that acknowledging a problem and talking about it brings you a heck of a lot closer to solving it than if you simply pretend it doesn’t exist.