Blame-The-Victim Policy Narratives and State-Level Transportation Policy Decisions
Policy literature discusses the intersection of media, public opinion, and politics, and their impact on public policy. This study examines if media reports regarding bicyclist and pedestrian crashes appear important in shaping the policy narrative that defines the event. The research seeks to understand the effects of policy narratives on transportation policy decisions to improve the safety of vulnerable road users. The report investigates the relationship between policy narratives that cast pedestrians and bicyclists as “guilty villains” versus “innocent victims” and the policy tools used to improve safety in local communities exist. Content analysis of different media sources generates the qualitative, coded independent variable, Blame-the-victim, and a qualitative, coded dependent variable, policy tools. The study randomly selects twelve states and gathers 767 news articles related to bicycle and pedestrian crashes for the period 2003-2015. The victim narrative appears more prevalent, but the episodic framing in the narrative indicates that the media reports the crashes as isolated issues without consideration of any environmental factors. This makes the news less important and fails to gather public opinion. The low visibility (< 10% of fatal crashes) and salience provided by the media likely results in the low rate of policy change.
- Record URL:
- Summary URL:
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Supplemental Notes:
- This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
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Corporate Authors:
Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, MI United States 49009-5316University of Texas at Arlington
Arlington, Texas United StatesOffice of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Authors:
- Mattingly, Stephen
- Bezboruah, Karabi
- Sloan, Jennifer
- Nargesi, Saeed Reza Ramezanpour
- Mahiyar, Ayushi
- Publication Date: 2018-5-31
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Web
- Edition: Final Report
- Features: References; Tables;
- Pagination: 57p
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Bicycle crashes; Crash victims; Cyclists; Decision making; Highway safety; Mass media; Pedestrian safety; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; Policy making
- Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Policy; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01678766
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: TRCLC 16-07
- Contract Numbers: TRCLC 16-07
- Files: UTC, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
- Created Date: Aug 27 2018 2:04PM