Discussion and Reply to Two Peers-‘Environmental ‘racism’
Topic: Policy Cycle, Agenda Setting, and News Media
“The only security of all is in a free press.”
–Thomas Jefferson
The policy cycle is a process that explains how public policy is created, implemented, and evaluated. Although there are many different variations of the policy cycle, we shall use a simplified, four step public policy cycle:
Step 1: Agenda Setting
- How public policy concerns are understood and how various stakeholders highlight the public policy concern.
Step 2: Policy Formation
- The crafting of public policy solutions. Public policy solutions are mostly addressed through legislation or regulation.
Step 3: Policy Implementation
- How public policy is applied via federal, state, and/or local endeavors.
Step 4: Policy Evaluation
- How public policy is assessed: success or failure.
Source: (Kraft, 2018)
Agenda setting is the first step of the policy cycle.
The news media can affect public policy via agenda setting. Agenda setting is how individual news media decides what news they will showcase and how important the news story is by providing greater or lesser attention to the news story (O’Connor, Sabato, 2017).
In addition, the news media can affect public policy via framing. Framing is how individual news media covers the news story and how such coverage can steer public policy one way or another (O’Connor, Sabato, 2017).
News Media’s coverage of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is a prime example of how agenda setting and framing affected environmental public policy. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank, resulting in the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon and the largest spill of oil in the history of marine oil drilling operations. 4 million barrels of oil flowed from the damaged Macondo well over an 87-day period, before it was finally capped on July 15, 2010” (EPA, 2017)
The following links showcase media coverage and analysis of the BP Deepwater Horizon coverage.
- ABC World News Now’s broadcast of the initial disaster:
https://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/april-22-2010-bp-oil-rig-explosion-13376980 - The Guardian Newspaper’s coverage of the initial disaster:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/may/31/bp-oil-spill-death-impact - The Washington Post’s article a week after the initial disaster:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/26/AR2010042604308.html - Fox News’s article a week after the initial disaster:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/everything-will-be-examined-in-gulf-oil-spill-officials-say - The Pew Research Center’s article, ‘Oil Spill Coverage Engulfs the Media’ that analyses how the news media covered the disaster:
https://www.journalism.org/2010/06/01/pej-news-coverage-index-may-2430-2010/
Directions: Using the required, academic readings, and supplemental academic research, please address the following while adhering to the Discussion Board Rubric:
- Select a specific example of public policy from one of the following fields:
- Economic policy
- An example of economic policy is U.S. budget deficit spending.
- Education policy
- An example of education policy is the implementation of national education standards.
- Environmental policy
- An example of environmental policy is the Clean Air Act.
- Foreign policy
- An example of foreign policy is how we conduct trade with other countries.
- Healthcare policy
- An example of healthcare policy is the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
- Welfare policy
- An example of welfare policy is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
- Economic policy
- Write a letter to the editor of a major news media company about a specific article, video, or political cartoon. The Union of Concerned Scientists has a great resource that explains how one writes a letter to the editor. In this letter please include the following:
- Analyze how the news media sets the agenda and frames the news story.
- Articulate, in detail, how this news story helps or hinders your chosen public policy.
- Speculate how voter engagement could affect this public policy.
Although you may pick your news story from any of the major news media, here are some reputable news sources that may prove useful:
ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/
Boston Globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/
CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com
Chicago Tribune: https://www.chicagotribune.com
Denver Post: https://www.denverpost.com/
LA Times: https://www.latimes.com
Houston Chronicle: https://www.chron.com/
NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/
The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com
Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/
Tampa Bay Times: https://www.tampabay.com/
USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/
The Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/
Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com
References:
Deepwater Horizon – BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. (2017, April 19). Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/deepwater-horizon-…
Kraft, M. E., & Furlong, S. R. (2018). Public policy: Politics, analysis, and alternatives. London: SAGE.
O’Connor, K., & Sabato, L. (2018). American government: Roots and reform.
Raina Pape-Spencer posted Oct 29, 2020 8:51 AM
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Step 1: Agenda Setting
- How public policy concerns are understood and how various stakeholders highlight the public policy concern.
Within Education policies there have been many changes and improvements to be made. With education policies stakeholders are looking for what will show most improvement for schools within their districts. If more funding our better equipment is provided then that can lead to better outcomes and results for the states involved.
Step 2: Policy Formation
- The crafting of public policy solutions. Public policy solutions are mostly addressed through legislation or regulation.
With promoting a new education policy they may go a couple ways of getting it implemented. They get support from the city or state to put it into effect or they have a vote set out for the people who live within the area to see if they are in support or against the new policy.
Step 3: Policy Implementation
- How public policy is applied via federal, state, and/or local endeavors.
They are originally created if there is a notice in issue that people within those areas are having problems with, in this case it would be issues that parents think are happening to their communities schools and what can be improved. They can put in small acts to existing policies to see if that helps solve the issue and or see what affect a policy is having and if it is or is not doing what it was intended for.
Step 4: Policy Evaluation
- How public policy is assessed: success or failure.
After sometime of a policy in place that is when the government comes and see’s if the policy is working or not. However, there are currently many issues within the school system not being fixed, so just because it states that there is success or failure does not mean appropriate adjustments will be made or that they will be made in a timely manner. “1. Deficits in government funding for schools, 2. Decline in school safety, 3.Challenges with technology in education, 4. Controversy over charter schools and voucher programs, 5. Problems with common core curriculum, 6. Decreased teacher salaries, 7. Emphasis on standardized testing.” (Barrington, K. 2019). These are just a few common issues that have not gotten better and if anything have actually gotten worse over time without appropriate action being taken.
References
Barrington, K (2019). Public School Review: The 15 Biggest Failures of the American Public Education System. Retrieved from https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/the-15-biggest-failures-of-the-american-public-education-system
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