Abstract
David Fenton, the founder of Fenton Communications, in an interview with the Grist online, recently suggested that in order for environmental organizations to successfully influence public opinion or policy, they need to pay closer attention to the “marketing” and communication of their concerns and interests (Smith 2014). He notes that people trained in marketing know the importance of “moral narratives and imagery” for influencing public opinion. Fenton, whose company managed a campaign by Yoko Ono in New York to oppose the issue of hydraulic fracturing, indicates in the interview that relating the issues to people, rather than the “environment,” may be key to the success of the environmental movement. However, whether that is the case on the issue of hydraulic fracturing is an empirical question. Hydraulic fracturing is arguably one of the most contentious policy issues on many state and local agendas today, and perhaps one of the most widely debated environmental issues in recent history. Yet, how the policy narratives surrounding hydraulic fracturing are being developed is an understudied area of research. Moreover, such research can provide valuable insights on how the political opinions and policy dialogue are being shaped around this issue.
This research was part of a larger study funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The authors express their gratitude to the foundation for their generous support and their appreciation to the coding team for this project: Ben Blair, Sam Gallaher, and Jennifer Kagan. Of course, any errors or omissions in this article are the authors’ alone.
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© 2014 Michael D. Jones, Elizabeth A. Shanahan, and Mark K. McBeth
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Heikkila, T., Weible, C.M., Pierce, J.J. (2014). Exploring the Policy Narratives and Politics of Hydraulic Fracturing in New York. In: Jones, M.D., Shanahan, E.A., McBeth, M.K. (eds) The Science of Stories. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137485861_9
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