Networks of Swiss Water Governance Issues. Studying Fit between Media Attention and Organizational Activity

Abstract

This study analyzes Swiss water governance as a network of interrelated issues. It compares how organizations reflect relations between governance issues in their activity with the way issue relations are depicted by the media (issue attention-activity fit). To do so, a media data analysis, supported by machine learning, is combined with a nation-wide survey. Prominent areas of misfit relate to the coordination between water saving measures and drought risks; the exploitation of subterranean resources and drinking water protection; and issues of micropollutants. The study demonstrates that comparing organizational activity with media attention is particularly well suited to recognize newly emerging, currently neglected areas of governance.

Keywords:

• Governance
• media attention
• networks
• Switzerland
• water

Notes

Notes

1 All data and code needed to replicate the analysis can be found in an open online repository under: https://doi.org/10.25678/000077

2 The exact search terms were *wasser or wasser* or *gewässer or gewässer* or *see or see*

3 The high misfit between geothermal energy and fracking itself should probably not be interpreted substantively. There are few organizations active in both of these newly developing fields in Switzerland, which leads to little organizational overlap, while the impacts and regulatory aspects of both technologies overlap greatly, which leads to their high association in the media data.