Background on Media Coverage
In 2010, the BP Oil Spill spilled into the Gulf of Mexico resulting severely damaging an entire ecosystem and the livelihoods of many of those who live along the Gulf coast. One central method in trying to clean up the spill was the use of dispersants, which were portrayed much differently in the national media as compared to the local media. The national media tended to respond to the use of dispersants much more positively by showcasing BP’s statements of their safety and the EPA’s approval of their use, while local media near the spill tended to present many victims of dispersants who had been exposed and suffered irreparable effects. As a result, national media in holding more responsibility to the public seemed to support quicker fixes to the spill rather than explaining there may be no solutions and that the only thing can be addressed is precautions in drilling to ensure to hold oil companies to a standard that this doesn’t repeat itself once again or methods of repairing are researched and improved.

The Media Narrative
The reason that the coverage of this disaster seemed to occur in this manner is that the media enjoys creating narratives that are short in nature to satisfactorily satiate the public’s constant need for new interesting stories, as they quickly grow tired of the same story. One theoretical source that discusses this is Tamborini, R, et al. 2013, which states that “perceived appeal of a media narrative, … is a combination of characters’ perceived morality and the outcome for their behaviors.” Interestingly, this study also reveals that in casting the “characters” in a narrative in an initial negative light with positive outcome for their behaviors it tends to generate more interest than negatives of both. This reveals, that the public enjoyed seeing BP work to be able to easily fix the spill even though they were initially very bad in performing malpractices that resulted in the spill. ¹

New York Times Article Excerpt:
The Coast Guard approved dozens of requests by BP to spread hundreds of thousands of gallons of surface oil dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico despite the Environmental Protection Agency’s directive on May 26 that they should be used only rarely, according to documents and correspondence analyzed by a Congressional subcommittee.
          In some cases, the Coast Guard approved BP’s requests even though the company did not set an upper limit on the amount of dispersant it planned to use.²

This example New York Times article excerpt overall supports the credibility of BP, as the Coast Guard approves of them and even though in this article the Environmental Protection Agency officially does not support the use, there are several older articles that show their support and even the EPA head during the time of the BP Oil Spill has a testimonial on NALCO’s website supporting the benefits of the Corexit dispersant’s use. This can be seen here.

The Big Fix: BP Oil Spill Documentary

The Big Fix documentary is featured above, and this documentary goes into a lot of the collusion that seemed to occur within the BP organization involving the cleanup. It especially explores the use of dispersants in order to clean up the beaches and the water during the BP Spill revealing many interesting correlations including the fact that Exxon is a large shareholder of NALCO, the company that produces the dispersant Corexit, that is used to clean up the BP Oil Spill. Also, revealing that BP continued to use dispersants on the beaches despite the EPA’s order to halt their use. One of the directors of the film actually experiences first-hand effects of the dispersants as she receives chemical burns and chemical pneumonia following her exposure to the dispersants. This account along with several Louisiana locals and fisherman who show open sores and other symptoms create a first hand account into a part of the spill that wasn’t being covered by the national media.

Page Number Reference:
1 – Introduction/Navigation Page
2 – Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
3 – BP Oil Spill
4 – Interesting Additional Information
5 – Site Reflections