This dissertation project seeks to integrate research on procedural justice into how we understand the impact of media coverage on local public life, particularly local engagement related to health and environmental risks. Procedural justice has emerged in recent decades as a theoretically-grounded means of examining the fundamental human value of "fairness" in a range of settings. The core hypothesis of procedural justice research is that if an individual perceives that the process underlying a decision is fair, they are more likely to accept that decision, feel satisfied with the decision-maker, and undertake future action on behalf of the group within which the decision was made.
Past media research has not sought to test whether various types and levels of media use are associated with fairness perceptions, despite substantial research demonstrating that fairness is an important contributor to individual attitudes towards civic leaders. The main focus on the research will be the collection and analysis of survey data from Upstate New York aimed at obtaining individuals' assessments of: local authorities' procedural and distributive fairness, local risk perceptions, external efficacy, trust, media-use patterns, and standard civic outcomes variables (e.g. level of local political participation and satisfaction with government). The survey will be complemented by interviews with Upstate journalists, qualitative consideration of local news content, and several social-psychological experiments involving the exposure of student samples to simulated media content about local environmental health risks. The project is meant to broaden the applicability of ongoing research using procedural justice to understand how traditional public meetings about risk affect participants' and non-participants' perceptions of government experts and officials. Understanding whether media use and attention is associated with media users' perceptions of authorities fairness should support the shaping of communication messages and strategies used for public engagement.
