Sahara Sommer & Dr. Lindsey O’Connor
Abstract
This research is focused on the belief that media sources often provide biased reporting of climate change that can be found in different outlets of media news (television, internet, radio, newspaper) and how this impacts one’s belief that the media overstates the evidence about climate change. Research on this topic is important since it contributes to our understanding of the social world because it addresses the role that modern day mass media plays in the lives of individuals in society in regard to influencing one’s environmental attitude and environmental behaviors.The aim of this study is to explore how the way people consume media impacts one’s belief that the media overstates the evidence about climate change. While scholars have provided many extensive studies regarding the relationship between mass media and the impact on individuals environmental attitudes, less is known about how the source of one’s news (television, internet, newspaper and radio) impacts one’s belief that media overstates the evidence about climate change. Therefore, it is important to study how people get their news to better understand how their beliefs surrounding the issue of climate change comes into fruition. The research question I will be asking about this topic is; How does the way people consume media impact one’s belief that the media overstates the evidence about climate change? In this study I am taking a secondary data analysis approach while utilizing data sets from the “National Surveys on Energy and the Environment” (NSEE 2013). I used a statistical test known as ANOVA to determine if there is a statistically significant difference between the data represented in both my independent and dependent variables by testing for differences of means using variance. Through this approach I have found that there is not a statistically significant difference based on one’s primary source of media news.
Details
Session 1
9:30am – 11:00am
Grand Salon
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