Abstract

Twelve U.S. states were tasked with developing nutrient reduction strategies to help address hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. To better understand the kinds of messages different stakeholders in these states are likely to encounter about such strategies, we conducted a content analysis focused on the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy (INRS). We examined 483 articles in two agricultural and two non-agricultural news outlets. We found that agricultural news outlets more often led with agricultural themes and more often used agricultural representatives as sources. The non-agricultural news outlets more often quoted representatives of environmental groups. News articles infrequently led with science or health themes. The volume of coverage over time in three of the four news outlets appeared followed similar issue attention cycles. Differences among the outlets may lead to differences in stakeholders’ knowledge or views about the INRS and conservation, posing challenges to consensus-building.

Keywords: Conservation practices, dead zone, content analysis, issue attention cycle, nutrient reduction

How to Cite:

Witzling, L., Wald, D. M. & Williams, E., (2022) “Conservation in the News: Comparing News Coverage of Nutrient Reduction in Agricultural and Non-agricultural News Outlets in Iowa”, Journal of Applied Communications 106(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.4148/1051-0834.2426