Risk in Daily Newspaper Coverage of Red Tide Blooms in Southwest Florida

Abstract

This study investigated newspaper coverage of Florida red tide blooms in four metropolitan areas of Southwest Florida during a 25-year period, 1987–2012. We focused on how journalists framed red tide stories with respect to environmental risk, health risk, and economic risk. We determined risk to be a key factor in this news coverage, being an aspect of coverage of red tide itself in terms of environmental risk, tourism risk, and public health risk. The study found that red tide news coverage is most often framed as an environmental story.

Notes

Formerly the St. Petersburg Times.

A list of all operational definitions and a copy of the coding sheet may be requested from the authors.

³The full version of the coding sheet and codebook (including examples) are available upon request.

Story frame coding categories for headlines and story content included business/economy, tourism/recreation, politics/policy, public health, seafood safety, fishing, environmental quality/red tide, natural disaster, wildlife/marine animals, and other.

Red tide descriptions coding categories included bloom, toxic/poison, Karenia brevis or K. brevis, red tide, harmful, and other.

Environmental risk coding categories included fish kills, shellfish contamination, marine mammals, birds, nutrients pollution, and other.

Health risk coding categories included respiratory/breathing irritation, dermal-skin irritation or skin infection, seafood or shellfish poisoning, watery eyes, and other.

Economic risk coding categories included public health, tourism and recreation, commercial fisheries, monitoring and management cost, and other.

Intervention coding categories included fertilizer ordinances, dead marine life removal, beach closing, beach notification-warning, shellfish beds closing or fishing closing, report dead fish or red tide symptoms, travel-tourism incentives, research, and other.

Sources included public health official, NOAA or other government official, NGO or NGO official, business-commercial official, tourism-convention bureau, private consultant, academic/researcher/Mote, tourists/visitors, local residents, charter boat captains, and other.