Something Fishy in the News
UMaine undergraduate helps analyze media coverage of Maine’s shellfish
By Joe Rankin
Eva Weitman has learned a lot about reading the news — and a lot about shellfish — over the past few months.
The 21-year-old University of Maine environmental science major has been working with doctoral candidate Brianne Suldovsky on a research project looking at media coverage of Maine and New Hampshire’s shellfish industry to get a better understanding of public discourse on the issue.
Weitman’s contribution involves helping compile a detailed analysis of hundreds of articles from the two states’ newspapers going back more than a decade. The material came from news articles, editorials, op-ed pieces and letters to the editor, and concerned everything from red tide and clam flat closures to the economic benefits of shellfish, how restaurants use shellfish in their menus, and how the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) enforces shellfish regulations, according to Weitman.
The project covers clams, oysters, scallops, and mussels. Lobsters, as crustaceans rather than mollusks, are not included.
The idea behind the research is to determine how the media frames information about shellfish — what topics writers focus on, how they approach their subjects, who they turn to for quotes and expertise, and who they don’t. The research also shows which shellfish-related issues draw media and public attention, and which are not getting addressed.
The study is being done under the auspices of the New England Sustainability Consortium (NEST). NEST is a regional research partnership that focuses on finding science-based solutions to societal problems with both economic and environmental facets. The study of threats to Maine and New Hampshire’s shellfish industries began in 2013. Last year NEST won a $6 million National Science Foundation grant to examine issues surrounding dams in Maine, N.H. and Rhode Island.
Suldovsky and Weitman said analyzing how the media has covered shellfish-related issues in the past will help stakeholders — whether fishermen or the DMR or others — focus their messages about the industry and its economic and cultural importance by letting them know which media outlets and reporters deal with the subject, and how.
In her research, Suldovsky, a Ph.D. student in communication and journalism, focuses on the social side of environmental issues. She said the work by Weitman and fellow undergraduate Victoria Sabol in ferreting out the articles and helping put them into categories has been “indispensable to the project.”
“A project like this takes many hours. It takes time and organization, and Ph.D. students and professors are often busy on multiple projects so it is really helpful to have someone designated who can do this type of work,” Suldovsky said.
Weitman said computer databases were used to assemble an initial list of articles that mentioned shellfish. The initial trawl turned up more than 2,000. For the period 2003 to mid-2013 the number was reduced by random sampling. All relevant articles published between mid-2013 and the end of 2014 were included. The result was some 700 pieces that needed to be coded by category, or categories — a process Weitman and Sabol are now helping with. The results will be compiled into a paper and presented to the leadership of NEST in early 2016, said Suldovsky.
Weitman said she’s found several interesting things so far: that the topic of shellfish doesn’t get much press in New Hampshire even though it’s a coastal state; that a small number of journalists deal with the issue, and that they tend to go back to the same experts all the time; and that there are far more articles about the economic impact of shellfish than those that look at shellfish as an integral part of New England culture.
Weitman said working with Suldovsky on the project has made “me a better student.” It’s also made her a more discerning reader of the news — any news. “I see how they’re focusing it in a certain way, and how information is being presented.”