Bruno Takahashi, Carol Terracina-Hartman, Katie Amann, and Mark S. Meisner “Headlining Energy Issues: A Content Analysis of Ethanol Headlines in the U.S. Elite Press,” presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) 2014 Conference, Montréal, Québec, August 8, 2014.

Abstract

Few studies examining media coverage of environmental and science issues have focused on headlines, which are considered relevance optimizers. This study examined the headlines about ethanol in the elite U.S. press. We focused on themes, issue attributes, tone, and actors. Results show a dominance of policy and economic themes, similar to other studies on biofuels. Differences with those studies are found in the presence of actors, where ethanol industry is more prevalent than governmental actors.

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