Environmental Values and the Social Amplification of Risk: An Examination of How Environmental Values and Media Use Influence Predispositions for Public Engagement in Wildlife Management Decision Making

Abstract

As human interaction with wildlife increases due to population growth and development, wildlife managers and risk professionals have increasingly recognized the importance of citizen participation in risk management decision making. Employing a general population telephone survey of upstate New York residents and using a structural equation model analysis, this study examines the roles that environmental values and media use play in promoting public engagement in wildlife management and risk decision-making processes. Placing the examination within the social amplification of risk framework, this study finds that environmental values directly impact concern, health risk perceptions, and engagement in wildlife management processes. Media use also impacts citizen participation by amplifying risk perceptions and concern while directly increasing the likelihood that citizens will participate in decision-making processes. The study's implications for how the social amplification of risk framework can be used to analyze citizen participation and how risk practitioners may encourage citizen engagement are discussed.

Keywords:

• communications
• environmental attitudes and concerns
• perceptions and management
• public participation

Acknowledgments

This research was supported entirely by the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station federal formula funds, project NYC-131420 received from Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Notes

Note. All coefficients shown are standardized and significant at the .05 level. Coefficients in the first row are direct effects, coefficients in the second row are indirect effects, and coefficients in the third row are total effects.

Note. All coefficients shown are standardized and significant at the .05 level. Coefficients in the first row are direct effects, coefficients in the second row are indirect effects, and coefficients in the third row are total effects.

The measures for television news and newspaper use, although closely related, were kept separate, as research has demonstrated that television news content is significantly different from newspaper content (McLeod et al. 1999), with, among other differences, television having more vivid and dramatic depiction of risks (Iyengar 1991).