2010 - Public Relations Society of America

Procedural –Licensing and application process for nuclear energy plants,
construction time, anticipated start date for a plant, or delay (moratorium) in
operating a plant.
Necessity – Nuclear energy as a necessity for energy independence, energy
sustainability or meeting energy demands.
Marketplace –Nuclear energy as a cost effective, viable investment, and/or f
inancial struggles of the industry or a nuclear plant.
Choice – Nuclear energy as a negotiation between the positive and negative
attributes of this energy source.
Proliferation – The expansion of nuclear energy technology leading to an
increase/enhancement in nuclear weapons, and/or enrichment of plutonium for
nuclear weapons
Intercoder Reliability
This study utilized proportional reduction of loss (PRL) to assess intercoder reliability for
the common sample of 99 randomly chosen articles. (Cooil & Rust, 1995). Proportional
reduction of loss calculates for chance agreement within multiple choice categories by “assuming
that the ratio of chance agreements to the total number of judgments will be proportionate to the
ratio of possible ways in which they could agree to the possible number of combinations”
(Taylor and Watkinson, p. 60, 2007). The critical value average for story elements was .99;
defined story elements .90, and dominant frame packages .80.
Results
Cross tabulations were run between the appropriate categorical variables. The strength of
the relationship between the categorical variables was statistically analyzed using Pearson’s Chisquare
and Cramer’s V. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used to assess changes
among category variables over time. To identify changes within the categories over time, three
databases were created using year as a variable. For one database the years of the study years
were organized as two variables, Before the Kyoto Protocol (1991-1997) and After the Kyoto
Protocol (1998-2008); for the next database trends among categories were compared between the
separate years of 1991 and 2008; and for the final database, year was organized as one variable
with the proportion of a particular category identified for each year as the second variable.
Research Question 1
Story elements. Before the Kyoto Protocol, two story elements, global warming (r(599)
= .146, p < .001; x 2 (2) = 12.76, p < .001) and nuclear weapons (r(599) = .128, p = .002; x 2 (2) =
9.75, p = .002) were more prevalent than after the Kyoto Protocol. A positive correlation was
found between year and global warming (r(18) = .638, p = .004).
Story elements defined. After the Kyoto Protocol, negative economic impact (r(599) = .165, p <
.001; x 2 (2) = 16.25, p < .001) and parts (r(599) = .097, p = .018; x 2 (2) = 5.58, p = .018) were
more prevalent in news articles than before the Kyoto Protocol. None of the defined story
elements was more prevalent in the years before the Kyoto Protocol. For 2008 references to
safety and security were more prevalent than in 1991 (r(87) = .243, p = .023; x 2 (2) = 5.15, p =
.023). Correlating the variable of year, 1991-2008, with each defined story element revealed a
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