| In January, 2014, 10,000 gallons of a toxic chemical contaminated the Elk River in West Virginia a mile and a half upstream of the regional water supplier's only intake pump for 300,000 residents. This crisis is particularly interesting to study because its features are different than many environment and health crises: high magnitude, human-caused, and unanticipated, while still being in many ways preventable by better science and improved regulatory actions. Generally, I assess if the media's role in this type of event has changed from what research would suggest because of the prevalence of digital media and the realities of the risk society, with a particular attention to new media, local news media, and stakeholders' roles.;First, I explore how the concept of risk society might be useful for the analysis of media discourse in new media environment. Risk society offers a framework from which to approach problems that effective risk communication can, in many ways, address. By training an intelligent algorithm, I use a combination of human and computer coding to assess the themes of relevant Twitter discourse, including pervasive distrust and limited community engagement.;Second, I assess the role of local news in amplification of risk in an era of new media. Through a content analysis of 501 print and online news media articles published between January 9 and February 5, 2014, I assess the extent to which risk dimensions manifest in local, regional, and national news media coverage. I additionally assess how prominently risk dimensions are presented into activist, citizen, government, industry, and university stakeholders' directly quoted and paraphrased remarks. Third, I evaluate what mental models different stakeholder groups employ when thinking about the news media coverage and the regulatory context of the crisis. I interview 17 stakeholders who were involved in some way to the public crisis response. I utilize semantic network analysis to elucidate the implicit conceptual associations within each stakeholder group.;Theoretical and practical implications for risk communication researchers and practitioners, as well as for those involved in risk management such as government, industry, and activist stakeholders, are discussed. |
