Evaluation of Nuclear Power and Renewable Alternatives as Portrayed in UK Local Press Coverage

Abstract

A content analysis was conducted of all UK local daily newspaper articles appearing in the first half of 1981, concerned with nuclear power or renewable alternatives. Evaluative coverage of these technologies was compared on dimensions found to characterise energy issues (economic, environmental, technological, future/political, physical and psychological risks). In addition, comparisons were drawn between coverage in areas ‘threatened’ with the potential siting of a new nuclear power station and that in ‘unaffected’ areas. The development stage of the two technologies and the degree of ‘factual’ as opposed to ‘polemical’ coverage they attracted were also recorded. In evaluative terms, nuclear power was evaluated overwhelmingly negatively, and alternatives positively. Moreover, this pattern showed a degree of consistency irrespective of the dimension of evaluation. The ‘threatened’ subsample was most negatively disposed towards nuclear power. Polemical coverage was greater for nuclear power than for alternatives and greatest in the ‘threatened’ sample. This category also contained articles more likely to attract attention because of their greater headline size and length. Whereas most coverage of nuclear power concentrates on preoperational or operational stages, coverage of alternatives is more concerned with its formative and planning stages. These findings were related to people's attitudes concerning nuclear power, and the growth in antinuclear feeling in particular.