Active Transportation Policies: Do Media Narratives Matter?

The intersection of media, public opinion, politics, and their relationship with public policy is well documented. Taking the issue of active transportation, the authors examine if media narratives on bicycle and pedestrian crashes appear important in shaping policy. They define positive and negative narratives portraying bicyclists and pedestrians as victims and villains respectively. Our research objective is to understand if media narratives have an effect on the policy tools used by decision-makers to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety. They examine if there is a relationship between the victim versus villain narrative and policy change at the state level. Using a mixed-methods research design, they analyze publication reports on crashes collected from 12 states for the period 2003–2015. They find that the victim narrative remains more prevalent in crash reporting, and the probability of policy change has a positive relationship with crash reporting rate. Greater salience of the issue in media reporting may influence increased policy change.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724X221129544
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/34383369
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © The Author(s) 2022.
• Authors:
  • Bezboruah, Karabi
  • 0000-0001-6070-2010
  • Sloan, Jennifer
  • Mattingly, Stephen P
  • 0000-0001-6515-6813
  • Ramezanpour Nargesi, Saeed Reza
• Publication Date: 2023-4

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 135-162
• Serial:
  • Public Works Management & Policy
  • Volume: 28
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 1087-724X
  • EISSN: 1552-7549
  • Serial URL: http://pwm.sagepub.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycle crashes; Mass media; Nonmotorized transportation; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; Public opinion; Public policy
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Policy; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01881096
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 25 2023 9:49AM