Media Influence On Public And Local Officials Perceptions

The Florida Everglades provides water to roughly 7 million people in Florida. There is on going issues with the Everglades water supply; for instance, it’s history,and the delayed problems are just two. There has been many acts to save it, and now we just can’t give up.

The Everglades Restoration Plan is the policy to increase the flow of clean water to the Everglades, in an effort to protect the environment, provide for recreational activities, and supply South Florida with a clean supply of potable water. At a cost of more than $10.5 billion and with a 35+ year time-line, this is the largest hydrologic restoration project ever undertaken in the United States. The Federal Government approved Florida’s landmark water quality project that, once constructed, all parties agree will provide the clean water the Everglades need (Scott, 2013). The Everglades restoration has been hampered by decades of futile bickering over how to decide the most rational approach to restoring the flow of water to the Everglades.

Texas, with its abundances of natural resources, is facing a new demon, one that doesn’t even seem possible, a shortage of water. Water, without it nothing can survive. Texas is the second largest state for landmass in the nation and ninth for water square miles. Within the borders of Texas are more than 100 lakes, 14 major rivers, and 23 aquifers, so why has water become such an important issue for the state? Politicians and conservationists all agree that without a new working water plan, the state could be facing one of the most damaging environmental disasters they have ever seen. The issues that shape the states positions are population growth, current drought conditions, and who actually owns the water.

But it doesn’t just serve as an entertainment purpose for humans, and provides inhabitants of the state with functional services. The Everglades is the primary source of water for an estimated seven million Americans, which is about one third of Florida’s population. It also helps support their economy, through tourism, agriculture, and outdoor activities, and to lose it could cause potential devastation for the people who live in the region (Graham, 2013). So, even for people who aren’t interested in preserving wildlife, it is almost undeniable that restoring the Everglades is important to humans too. In 2013, a canal project was finally successful in beginning to return water to the Florida bay, and has already started to save the wildlife and help preserve the fishing industry there (“Florida Everglades…”, 2015) The project to restore and protect this environment is going to be slow going as corporations and invasive species get in the way of progress, but we are shakily moving forward with

In the past twenty years, the United States media has transformed from a broadcasting to a narrowcasting media. Each method has its unique differences, with one being the amount of bias from each source. Narrowcasting specifically, can greatly affect the media’s ability to influence public opinion.

Human Development is the reason why Florida has water-supply problems. In the nineteenth century, the Everglades submerged more than half of Florida’s 36 million acres in clean, fresh water (43). Our water supply problems commenced when the SFWMD and the Army Corps of Engineers began draining and paving over the everglades in the early twentieth century. With concrete covering the ground, the 150 billion gallons of rainfall received has since been unable to filter down into the ground and replenish the aquifer. Instead that rainfall becomes run-off. The run-off does not return into natural watersheds,

“California’s water future is increasingly uncertain,” says Heather Cooley, in her article California Needs Better Water Management and Pricing Policies (Source A). Agriculture uses 80 percent of California’s constrained water supply and proves to be the primary source of California’s drought. There has been no permanent and largely successful conservation effort to save water. However, with a reformed water management and conservation system, California’s largest industry, agriculture, can thrive while saving water at the same time.

The state of Florida is very dependent on groundwater, primarily for public and agricultural supply. Indeed, the largest source of drinking water in Florida is groundwater from the state’s massive aquifer system; approximately ninety percent of the state’s drinking water is extracted from groundwater sources (Marella, 2004). According to Marella (2004), “Between 1970 and 2000, total freshwater withdrawals increased for public supply by 176 percent and for agricultural self-supplied by 87 percent” (p. 1). As discussed previously, a growing population correlates with an increase in the demand for groundwater resources. Groundwater is currently being pumped out of Florida’s aquifers faster than the state’s abundant rainfall can refill them (Barnett, 2007, p.2).

In Florida, agriculture is the largest consumer of fresh water usage, followed by domestic use, industry/commerce, and recreation irrigation: 40 %, 39 %, 15 %, and 6%, respectively (Marella, 2010, p.10). As stated in the Draft

Imagine walking into your house after being outside on a scorching summer’s day. Beads of sweat drip down your face, and you are completely parched. You turn on your faucet for a glass of water, but nothing comes out. This may sound like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie scene, but it can soon become a reality for those living on the west coast. Decades of unsustainable water practices have led to record low levels of water resources across the western states of the United States. Michelle Nijhuis of National Geographic reports that the western states of California, Nevada, and Arizona face a great deal of issues, due to the fact that their past system of water irrigation has become unsustainable. The first main factor behind this

“ A century ago Floridians thought their biggest problem was too much water where people wanted to settle. Now, our biggest problem is that we do not have enough water where people want to settle.” (Prologue pg. 10) Says Cynthia Barnett author of Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S. 100 plus years ago Florida was drowning. We had more water than we knew what to do with. In Mirage it teaches us many of the ways that we have come so far from being this teeming state. Through wasteful water use, legal and political fights for control, overconsumption, and undervalue for one of the most vital elements of life we have put ourselves in a position that is showing to be very difficult for Florida to overcome. Florida has

Water availability of both surface and ground water has become a major problem due to high demand. On average, 320 gallons of water are used per day by each household in America, 30 percent of which is used outdoors (EPA, 2015). In Florida alone, total water withdrawals are expected to increase by almost 21 percent by the year 2030 (Water use trends in Florida, 2014). I believe the high volume of water being used is not the sole issue; it is the source of our water as well as our water management practices. Some experts estimate that as much as 50 percent of water used for outdoor irrigation is lost through evaporation (EPA, 2015). This loss of water happens when plants or grasses are watered at certain times during the day and is a direct result of Florida’s water mismanagement. Commercial and residential vegetation has been watered too often and at the wrong times for far too long and it needs to stop unless we want to see our aquifers dry up entirely.

The media has always had a powerful impact on public opinion in Britain. With several different types and means of communication, such as TV, newspapers, social networking and radio, it is difficult for the public to not be even slightly impacted by the opinion of thousands that surrounds them every day. However, with newspapers spinning stories to promote the party they favour (such as the Daily Mail in favour of Conservatives or the Mirror in favour of Labour ) or to disparage the opposition, is it clear there is any obvious influence from the media towards the public in relation to reporting on British Politics?

The media also influences how the public perceives issues. The placement of political issues during news coverage influences the importance of political issues on society. The ranking of media issues and society’s ranking suggest that the media influence the public (Weaver, 1996). The importance of an issue may rests on its time slot, sequence in the news story, or in the advertisement for the news.

Around 50 million people watch CBS, ABC, or NBC every single night in order to obtain information from the day. Since the amount of people watching a news channel every night is so great, the media has had a great effect on the lives of everyone living in the United States. In our state and local government regions, each and every news channel or newspaper is going to take a certain view and stand-point on what the people say, think, and believe. Media effects are classified as direct or indirect, and the Media itself as well as the people behind the headlines can create positive as well as negative publicity. The media also has ways of going about their business and they even have their own terms for what they do, and how it should be