Media Contributions to a Chesapeake Bay Watershed Collective Identity:A Tale of Three Cities

Abstract Although collective action is needed to address many environmental challenges, it cannot proceed in the absence of collective identity. The current study sought to address the question of whether or not a collective identity exists among residents of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and, if so, what it might look like. The raw data were news stories drawn from local papers published in municipalities located at the headwaters of the Susquehanna River, midway down the Susquehanna, and where the river meets the bay. Computerized content analysis assessed the frequency with which the Chesapeake Bay and watershed were mentioned alongside a set of keywords thought to represent different facets of identity (e.g, agriculture, fishing, swimming). The results showed substantial variation in frequency across time and place, but, low absolute levels of coverage of the bay and the watershed. Multidimensional scaling revealed different structures to collective identity as a function of place. These differences in content may be attributable to varying demographic and environmental characteristics. Proximity to the bay may partially explain some of these differences, but, to the extent that a collective watershed identity exists at all, it is complex and heterogeneous.