When Critical Voices Should Speak Up

Patterns in news coverage of unofficial sources during the BP oil spill

Bibliographic Data

ID12909652
AuthorsBrendan R Watson (0000-0002-3518-9531, Schlumberger (Ireland), corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume8
Issue6
Pages842-854
Publication date2014-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism Practice (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1751-2786 • E-ISSN: 1751-2794
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17512786.2014.892723
OpenAlexW2117113766
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited26

Routine journalistic coverage relies heavily on official sources, which are least likely to raise critical questions about the causes and consequences of disasters such as the 2010 BP oil spill. It is possible, though, that disasters—precisely because they are unexpected—at least temporarily dislodge journalistic routines that sideline independent, more critical voices. This study uses Gulf Coast newspaper coverage of the BP oil spill to examine whether there are two discernible stages of crisis reporting, the first marked by the more frequent use of unofficial sources (and thus, a more critical tone to the coverage), followed by a narrowing of those perspectives seen as being legitimate as the official interpretation of the crisis emerges, and journalists index their coverage to match that interpretation.KEYWORDS: BPcontent analysiscrisis coverageindexingjournalismoil spillsources Notes1. Among BP executives' fateful decisions was foregoing a critical $128,000 pressure test that would have indicated unsafe levels of pressure from dangerous gases building in the well just before the explosion (Freudenburg and Gramling Citation2011)

Advertising · Business · Environmental protection · Geography · Interpretation (philosophy · Media coverage · Media studies · Newspaper · Oil spill · Political science · Sociology · Tone (literature · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Computer Science · History · Law · Public Relations and Crisis Communication · Risk Perception and Management

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub