A Two State Analysis of Narratives, Attention, and Policy in Transboundary Water Governance

• In Event: Institutional Dynamics in Policy: Convergence, Coordination, and Governance Under Complexity

Abstract

Watershed governance serves as an important administrative and practical mechanism for achieving environmental sustainability, necessary for ensuring accessibility to water resources, sustaining biodiversity, and facilitating disaster mitigation. However, its success is often interpreted through the lenses of narratives or stories of policy phenomena shared with a broader audience. This study investigates how narrative, temporal, and structural dimensions of public policy shape salience and coalitional mobilization across state jurisdictions toward prominent water-quality issues such as nonpoint source (NPS) pollution and/or eutrophication. Building upon a previous single-state case study analysis examining the relationship between policy narratives, media attention cycles, and policy processes in Beaver Lake, Arkansas, USA, this paper extends our investigation to Lake Taneycomo, Missouri, USA. This selected setting constitutes a geographically distinctive yet interconnected water body within the Upper White River Watershed appropriate for rigorous longitudinal and comparative analysis. We apply an integrated theoretical and conceptual model encompassing the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), Narrative Attention Theory (NAT), Downs' Issue-Attention Cycle (IAC), and contemporary policy process understandings, to conduct a comprehensive comparative analysis of policy narrative content, temporal phenomena, and the progression of policy process activity in Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas, USA. Local newspaper articles from regional databases were collected using specific search filters and systematic retrieval mechanisms to produce a robust and representative data corpus of public discourse. For the analysis component of this study, we utilized standardized content-coding schematics for NPF and policy stage elements to uncover the coalitional and political dynamics behind the predominant narratives present throughout the policy process. Additionally, our mechanisms for data analytics involved the application and calibration of Large-Language Models (LLMs) to code large-scale textual content, thereby providing an opportunity to assess the reliability of LLM applications for content analysis. Our study findings showcase how narrative content and temporal dynamics interactively catalyze and/or impede policy process activities under different state regulatory dimensions and institutional arrangements. Furthermore, this study provides a pragmatic evaluative model for watershed planners, environmental managers, and policymakers to refer to when seeking to sustain public salience and navigate the inherent political and policy complications of complex and contentious transboundary watershed governance.

Author

• Ryan James Ramaker, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
  Presenting Author