The Penobscot River Restoration Project has long been the focus of news media since its beginnings in 2004, drawing national news coverage, including from the New York Times and the CBS piece above, to local coverage in the Bangor Daily News. Because the news media have such great influence in the public sphere, it is important to consider how news media discuss various issues, with special relevance to environmental issues.
As the culmination of a semester’s work for CMJ 493: Environmental Communication, this project will examine the discussion of the Penobscot River Restoration Project in national and local news media using several theoretical frameworks.
We invite you to follow us downstream as we evaluate news frames of dams on the more than 30-mile stretch of river between the Howland Dam to the site of the former Veazie dam. Click the bars at top-right to navigate, or follow along here:
2. Environmental Communication Theoretical Framework
3. Frame Analyses
4. Visualizing the Frames
5. Conclusions
6. References
Meet your communication ‘scholars’:
It’s a “frame,” get it?
Framing the Penobscot River Restoration 