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Telling stories about (micro)plastic pollution: Media images, public perceptions and social change
Summary
This paper examines how microplastic pollution has been framed in media reporting and how the public understands the issue, finding that culturally embedded ideas about risk and health shape people's responses. Understanding media framing and public perception is important for designing effective communication strategies around microplastic contamination.
Microplastic pollution is now in the public domain as an emerging issue of global concern \nhowever there is little known about how this issue is framed within media reporting and also a \ndearth of studies exploring public understandings of the issue. In this paper, we explore how ideas \nabout microplastics are mediated by culturally embedded notions of what is ‘risky’ or ‘healthy’. \nSpecifically, we explore the wider role of media in telling stories and creating ”frames of \nunderstanding” about the environmental and health risks of (micro) plastics. This paper builds on a \nunique interdisciplinary study at Brunel University London. The project involved eco- toxicologists, \nsociologists, environmental scientists and natural history film makers and used the adventure \ndocumentary film about the problem of single-use plastics, ’A Plastic Ocean’, Netflix, 2017 to \nexplore wider ideas about the problem. This project is the first to systematically analyse media \ncontent (across 1 year, 2014-15) and we also used online deliberative survey tools involving a \nnationally representative sample of the UK population to explore how people engage with media \nstories about the topic. Additional rich qualitative data were generated in 6 focus group sessions \n(involving water sports club members, arts students, community workers and young mothers living \non a budget). The paper concludes by highlighting how wider public perceptions of risk and health intersect with and may potentially also undermine messages regarding possible solutions to this \nproblem and how we must learn from previous studies of media, science and publics if we are to \ndevelop culturally appropriate strategies to shape behaviour.
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