Plant life extension of nuclear power plants. No thank you? A scientific study on the influence of media and communication on the public opinion concerning nuclear power

The present study examined the influence of the individual use of media on attitudes towards nuclear power with focus in the run-time extension of German nuclear power plants, planned by the German government in the year 2010. The theoretical framework for explaining media effects on attitudes based on opinion research as well as on the second-level agenda setting. This approach assumes that highlighting attributes about attitude objects in the media makes them cognitively more accessible for recipients, so that these attributes are used to evaluate attitude object. In this study, arguments for and against the run-time extension were defined as attributes. For the investigation of individual media effects, this study was carried out in a two-method design to combine survey data and content analysis data on an individual level. From 16.08.2010 to 05.09.2010 the data on attitudes towards the planned run-time extension, nuclear power, energy, policy as well as individual media usage was collected in a representative telephone survey of n=551 people in Thuringia. In a quantitative content analysis the pro and contra arguments about the planned run-time extension in n=480 articles and news items, published during six months before the political decision, were analyzed. The findings of the content analysis showed that the media reported from 08.03.2010 to 05.09.2010 overall positively about the planned run-time extension and that the coverage intensity increased significantly shortly before the political decision. The main focus was on arguments regarding the efficiency and security of supply. By combining the content analysis data with the media usage data, new variables (sum and average value indices) for the specific individual media input of arguments about the run-time extension were formed. With these variables medium- and long-term media effects on attitudes towards nuclear power were tested. The results of the regression analyses showed that the individual media input on arguments about the run-time extension influenced (a) the evaluation of the planned run-time extension in a medium-term and (b) the general evaluation of nuclear power in a long-term. Furthermore, the findings illustrated that attitudes towards the run-time extension could be explained better by general attitudes towards nuclear power, energy and politics, than through the use of media. Overall, the present findings suggest that the second-level agenda-setting is suitable to explain media effects on attitudes, but further investigations, in particular on conflicting effects and the communicator credibility of arguments, are needed.