2018 Conference

Individual Paper Presentation

In June 2016, Shell announced plans to build a multi-billion-dollar ethane plant in Pennsylvania’s Potter township, 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. The plant, which will manufacture plastics using ethane by-products from natural gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale, is likely to engender multi-scalar economic, social and environmental transformations, few of which are presently understood. This research conducts a systematic media analysis to understand the public framing and contestation of these impacts in local, regional, and statewide outlets, advancing media analyses of natural gas development conducted by Evensen, Clarke, and Stedman (2014) in the Marcellus Shale region. We examine discussions of impacts to both the built and natural environment, as well as social, political, economic, and human health impacts of the proposed ethane plant. Articles from the Beaver County Times, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and StateImpact Pennsylvania/The Allegheny Front from 2012 through 2017 are analyzed, with a total sample of 340 articles. Impacts are analyzed by type and valence (positive, negative, neutral or mixed), and finally coded as either anticipated or realized impacts. The most prolific journalist on the topic for each media source is interviewed to provide further information about impact reporting. Ultimately, this media analysis will identify critical the multi-scalar and temporal impacts of the plant as framed in public discourse, and will inform the development of a broadened impact assessment framework that better incorporates temporal, scalar, and socio-environmental systems perspectives.