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Vanderbilt Drinking Water Justice Lab

Drinking Water Newspaper Text Analytics

Pollution in the Press uses a socio-hydrological approach to evaluate local awareness of drinking water quality issues. By employing text analytics, we explored the potential drivers of regional water quality narratives within 25 local news sources across the United States. Specifically, we assessed the relationship between media coverage and water quality violations in communities as well as the influence of social, political, and economic factors on the coverage of water quality issues. The goal of the research was to extend our current understanding of variations in local narratives to consider nuances of water quality issues and indicate opportunities for increasing equity in environmental risk communication. This research is a collaborative effort between Vanderbilt University and Sandia National Laboratories, the manuscript is currently under review for Frontiers in Environmental Science.

Research Assistants: Mariah D. Caballero

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jonathan Gilligan and Dr. Yolanda J. McDonald

Academic Publications:

  • Caballero, M. D., Gunda, T., McDonald, Y. J. (2021). Pollution in the Press: Employing Text Analytics to Understand Regional Water Quality Narratives. Frontiers in Environmental Science [In Press].

Academic Work:

  • Caballero, M.D. (2022). Pollution in the Press: Employing Text Analytics to Understand Regional Water Quality Narratives [Under Review, Master’s thesis, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University].

Presentations:

  • Caballero, M. D., Gunda, T., McDonald, Y. J., Gilligan, J. M.. Pollution in the Press: Employing Text Analytics to Understand Regional Water Quality Narratives, (panel: presenter). American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Conference, April 2021, Virtual.
  • Caballero, M. D., Gunda, T., McDonald, Y. J., Gilligan, J. M.. Pollution in the Press: Employing Text Analytics to Understand Regional Water Quality Narratives, (poster: presenter). American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Conference, December 2020, Virtual.

Theoretical Frameworks: