Research on the process of policy change often involves a direct or indirect analysis of the roles of policy entrepreneurs and the mass media. In Colorado, beginning in 1998, twelve communities decided to obtain water rights for recreational in-channel purposes such as kayaking and whitewater rafting. These water rights stirred political controversy within some communities in Colorado related to spending public monies, appropriate uses of water, and the role of recreation in local economies. A multi-methods cross-case research design was used to examine the policy process within 18 Colorado communities. This project includes analyses of media influence, expert and citizen involvement, and the role of these factors in promoting awareness about recreational water rights as well as policy change in this policy venue.

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Based on previous research, it is evident that stakeholders involved in Colorado water policy may define the word ‘conservation’ differently. The two potential definitions of this word carry vastly different connotations for policy outcomes: one promotes using less water while the other promotes diverting more water. It is, therefore, important to understand whether these definitions are pervasive throughout the water community in Colorado and whether there are demographic differences in who uses the different definitions. This research will also attempt to understand whether participants in one important stakeholder negotiation process in Colorado have actually encountered any difficulties with policy discussion groups based upon differing interpretations of the word ‘conservation’.

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The new reality of local environmental reporting involves reduced resources, staffing, and training for journalists who are expected to cover environmental issues. At the same time, large segments of the American population are uninformed about policy issues that affect their lives and their communities. This dichotomy sets up a conflict between the journalistic resources that a democracy cannot afford to lose and those that media outlets cannot afford to provide. This also calls into question the training of journalists and the needs of future journalists. The new expectations of journalists not only include an expanded ability to fill the role of expert reporters, but also the ability to provide coverage in a multimedia environment, which is not among the core competencies of traditional local media outlets. This study surveyed Colorado journalists across media platforms to better understand the conditions under which they report on environmental topics and the preparation and training that they’ve had.

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Wildfire has long existed as a natural component of an ecosystem. However, due to many years of fire suppression policy alongside increasingly dry conditions, the western United States is experiencing some of the biggest and most severe wildfires in history. In recent years, fires affecting populations along the wildland-urban interface (WUI) have grown in size and destruction, substantially impacting life and property across the West. Western states are experiencing significant population growth and development combined with prolonged drought conditions and predictions of climate change that indicate increasing drought in the West. An area that is geographically and climatically prone to catastrophic wildfires and which also overlaps with high rates of population growth is termed the Red Zone. More fires are expected in the Red Zone in future years, necessitating appropriate and well-informed policy in order to reduce risk to life and property as well as sustain ecological benefits.

Understanding residents’ perceptions of risk and responsibility in regards to fire mitigation and management in the Red Zone is important to shaping policy and land management decisions. Though this is an increasingly urgent topic, little research has been conducted to investigate the nexus between fire and residents’ values, beliefs, and the role of information in promoting support for fire management as well as influencing individual beliefs about the locus of responsibility for fire abatement (local, state, federal government, or individual homeowners).

With a team of graduate students, this study attempts to gain insight into the role that individual beliefs and external information sources (science, policy/management prescriptions, media coverage, advocacy communication) play in shaping residents’ behavior, risk perception, and policy support regarding fire management in the wildland-urban interface.

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With Elizabeth Albright, a colleague at Duke University, Deserai Crow is working to understand the policy responses in the aftermath of the September 2013 floods along Colorado’s Front Range. Understanding the factors that encourage policy learning and adaptation in local policy contexts may prove critical, since this can mean the difference between ongoing flood vulnerability as a consequence of extreme weather events rather than long-term resilience. Determining the factors that increase the likelihood of successful policy adaptation in response to these extreme events will produce policy-relevant knowledge that may encourage long-term local-level adaptability and resilience to extreme climatic events.

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Addressing public policy problems in an increasingly complex world relies heavily on communication, interpretation, and use of information. Media are one primary source through which information is disseminated, consumed, and framed. Media are frequently referenced in the policy literature as important mechanisms for policy change, a tool through which stakeholders influence policy outcomes, or a measure of policy agendas. In the mass communication literature, there is ample focus on media influence over politics and public opinion. However, the literature neglects the development of a comprehensive understanding of public policy influence by mass media. Scholars often argue that media do have important influences on individuals, institutions, and collective outcomes such as public policy. Policy scholars simply have not fully integrated the disciplinary ideas that other fields have developed into a single framework of media influence on policy outcomes. This broad project seeks to integrate these contributions from public policy, political science, mass communication, and journalism studies to present what we know and do not know about media influence in the policy process.

As part of this umbrella of studies, we are investigating stakeholder strategies and effectiveness as key components in a complete analysis of policy change and policy coalition dynamics. Using a comparative study of stakeholder coalitions in environmental policymaking, researchers are analyzing stakeholder narrative strategy, effectiveness, and framing of winners and losers by policy actors. Additionally, we are evaluating the difference between narratives used in direct stakeholder outreach and those used in and through media sources, in an attempt to understand the variation in narratives used in different communication channels. This project will contribute to the methodological conversations related to narratives in policymaking as well as expanding our understanding of the role of these narratives. Researchers are using Colorado water and energy case studies to compare the use of narratives by advocates across time and subject areas.

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This study analyzes the informational inputs and strategic actions of coalitions of actors within the regulatory context and the resulting regulatory outcomes. Scholars understand the resources of coalitions of actors to be important to influencing policy outcomes (Sabatier, 1999; Weible, 2008).

The study proposed here investigates one such category of resources: information. Information that can influence policymaking in the regulatory context can include science and other expert-produced information, advocacy-oriented information, industry-focused information, or media-produced information (Crow & Stevens, 2012; Healy & Ascher, 1995; Korfmacher & Koontz, 2003; Layzer, 2012).

Citizens can also, at times, produce effective information that can be influential to informing and influencing regulatory decisions (Layzer, 2012). Not only is the information itself a resource, used to inform and persuade, but also the strategy with which the information is used can be important to understand when studying coalitions of actors.

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The collection traces the importance of culture on the politics of climate change and delves into the importance of information in its various forms and contexts. The book is divided into four sections—Culture and Values, Communication and Media, Politics and Policy, and Future Directions in Climate Politics Scholarship—each followed by a commentary from a key expert in the field. The book includes analysis of the challenges and opportunities for establishing successful communication on climate change among scientists, the media, policy-makers and activists; discussion of the significant cultural and normative considerations related to climate change that must be communicated and translated by political processes into public policy; and identification of future needs and improvements in studies on climate change communication linking science, media, activism and policy.

Focusing on the interrelation between social, cultural and political aspects of climate change communication, this volume should be of interest to students and scholars of climate change, environment studies, environmental policy, communication, cultural studies, media studies, politics and sociology.

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