August 17, 2026
A new paper has come out led by SCARP PhD Madison Lore and including SCARP Assistant Professor Holly Caggiano, about news media's effects on the social acceptance of renewable energy.
Quantifying patterns of news media framing and social acceptance of renewable energy
by:
- SCARP PhD alum Madison Lore
- SCARP Assistant Professor Holly Caggiano
- Sara Constantino
Lore, Caggiano, and Constantino elaborate on any number of reasons why discussions of renewable energy transitions become so "highly visible, salient, politicized, and contentious", often resulting in delays or obstruction. There are matters of local consultation, material concerns, and even perceived threats to identity (industries and their products are often connected with a certain identity or symbol), but also widespread misinformation. Finally, the uncertainty of new technologies and their transition is its own blockade: "Willingness to change in the context of uncertainty hinges on how the future is imagined and communicated."
These phenomena don't exist in a vacuum, and this paper describes the phenomenon of media and "infotainment" in cultivating beliefs, identities, and positionalities. The paper set out to "understand how variation in prominent narratives about energy transitions across major news networks relate to public support for [renewable energy] projects".
This study shows the need for policymakers wishing to pass local RE policy to counter news media narratives by clearly highlighting the benefits associated with these projects, such as job creation, economic benefits, and energy independence. Importantly, this also involves delivering on these opportunities. People weigh risks and benefits in many ways, but the narratives they hear shape the risks and benefits that come to mind, especially for uncertain and future-oriented challenges like climate change and energy transitions.
About the authors
Cornell U Assistant Professor Madison Lore, SCARP PhD Alum
Lore's research analyses the impact of informal signals (e.g., online posts, news broadcast commentaries) on support and uptake of sustainable behaviours regarding housing, transportation, and energy, understanding the power of the social dimensions of sustainable transitions and the language used to perpetuate it.
SCARP Assistant Professor Holly Caggiano
Caggiano’s research explores social dimensions of the renewable energy transition in the US and Canada. Her aim is to advance equitable climate change mitigation & adaptation efforts. She is interested in how diverse stakeholder groups form coalitions to advocate for environmental change.
Sara Constantino
Sara Constantino is an assistant professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability in the Department of Environmental Social Sciences and a visiting research scholar at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs. Her research focuses on how individual, collective, institutional and ecological factors shape preferences, decisions, experiences, and resilience to extreme events or shocks.