Elite and Public Narratives in the Aftermath of Disasters

• In Event: Policy Narratives and Discourse

Abstract

When policy actors effectively communicate about policy problems through the use of policy narratives, scholars argue that they may effect change by shaping public opinion and policy processes. This interplay between actors, problems, and policy process dynamics is central to ideas related to the conference theme of Populism and Privilege. Perception of problem definitions, causal attribution, and policy goals or outcomes are all at stake when actors communicate the risks faced by individuals or communities. Divergence in understanding of these concepts between the public and elites such as scientists and policymakers can lead to breaches in trust, lack of support for policy initiatives, and other political challenges. This discussion lays the foundation for the research question that motivates our study: what similarities and differences exist in public and elite narratives, over time, and how are these narratives reflected in policy change? The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) was developed to provide scholars with theoretical and empirical grounding for conducting inquiries into such questions. The NPF organizes our analysis of narratives constructed and employed by policy actors that seek to define the problem, attribute blame, and narrow the range of policy considerations towards their favored ends.

This study focuses on the case of extreme flooding that occurred in September 2013 in Colorado. The flooding which took place during a 3-day period caused catastrophic damage to some communities along the major metro corridor between Fort Collins and Colorado Springs. Not only did communities experience major social and organizational disruptions, but across the state, transportation and utility infrastructure was damaged or destroyed. To analyze the narratives constructed during the response to the floods and disaster recovery, we draw upon social and mainstream media content related to the Colorado floods. For social media we use Twitter content generated during the first three years after the floods using the hashtag #coflood. For mainstream media content, we draw upon news articles from the statewide newspaper as well as the major newspapers from the affected communities in Colorado. Using dictionary-based autocoding in R, we analyze patterns among the individuals and organizations that communicated about the floods, the problem definitions they employ, causal attribution that they offer, and any policy solutions mentioned. Finally, we tie these patterns to the observed policy changes that took place in the first three years after the flood event to determine whether certain combinations of problems, causes, and solutions are observed beyond media content in actual policy discourse and decisions.

Preliminary findings suggest that in the year following the flood disaster, narrative content in both media and social media focus on immediate concerns of disaster response and recovery. Only in later years do narratives begin to focus on longer-term issues – and yet still with little discussion of the underlying causes of the floods. These findings support our prior work on wildfire policy narratives that urges studying disaster narratives over time due to changes in attention and policy processes as disaster response, recovery, and rebuilding take place.

Authors

• Deserai Anderson Crow, University of Colorado Denver

• Elizabeth Ann Albright, Duke University

• Elizabeth Koebele, University of Nevada, Reno