Energy, energy, read all about it: A thematic analysis of energy insecurity in the U.S. mainstream media from 1980 to 2019

Abstract

We use thematic analysis to examine US news media articles (n = 575 from 192 outlets) about household energy insecurity issues from 1980 to 2019 as conveyed through extreme heat and cold-related events. The coverage tells stories of changes in climate patterns; rising costs of energy and changing energy landscapes; and potential for greater social and health inequality in tandem with a shrinking social safety net to support basic human needs. We found that media not only provides a body of evidence to substantiate academic and policy claims, but often precedes scholarly research in opening up new avenues for issue awareness, and highlighting lived experiences of energy insecurity. We highlight a triangular relationship across media coverage, policy output, and public interest, in which media plays a key role in germinating public response to policy, and influencing the nature of this response. We also offer critiques about how media has covered these issues that may have adverse policy implications.An overarching goal of this study is to demonstrate that there are insights to be gleaned from media coverage that confirm, extend, and challenge current policies and the scholarly and lay audience understanding of energy insecurity. These insights include, but are not limited to: making explicit the sociopolitical factors that both influence, and are exacerbated by, energy insecurity; including missing voices of those experiencing the compounding impacts of energy insecurity; and in turn, ways in which media coverage could propel policy to better address inequity dimensions of energy insecurity that current measures overlook.