Beat+Reporting+in+Texas+notes+and+exercise


 * Notes (on all articles)**
 * Bad drought in Texas
 * Drives animals to do things they ordinarily wouldn't (example: mountain lion attacking a boy)
 * Texas water plan
 * Prescribed burning: controlled fires to try to avoid large, uncontrolled fires
 * Climate change and vampire bats moving north to Texas
 * Vampire bats like to bite cattle...what will that mean for Texas' cattle industry?
 * Earthquakes possibly cause by oil and gas industry (disposal wells of fracking fluid)
 * Cattle dying; meat processing plants in Texas closed, with the result


 * Exercise**
 * Data:**
 * News stories (vampire bat story, etc.) about the events.
 * Interviews with scientists and other experts (state climatologist, mountain lion experts, experts in firefighting/natural resource experts, bat experts, climate change modelers, people at the 9-1-1 call center, geophysicsts/seismologists, regulators, etc.)
 * Interviews with citizens (the grad students in the drought article, ranchers, guy bitten by a vampire, people who worked at the cattle processing plant, etc.) who observed the events noted in the articles


 * Short Proposal:**

The underlying theme behind these articles is climate change in Texas, whether it is the effects or the fossil fuels' other effects). Climate change is a serious issue; but if the public does not understand all the economic, environmental, and health consequences, they might not be willing to make necessary changes to their lifestyle and enact policies and laws to mitigate and lessen climate change. This study will assess public knowledge in Texas on climate change, including where the public recieved its information from. The results can then be used by educators and outreach people from environmental, health, and economic groups to try and educate the public better. Climate change is a huge issue, one that will affect many Texans in many ways. Already, the economy is hurting because of drought. How big of an issue do Texans feel the climate change issue is, especially in light of drought and future issues? Where are they getting their information? Surveys can answer some of this information, especially at a quantitative level. By performing qualitative interviews with key informants, more information can be gleaned. Both methods will be used to determine what the public knows and where they learned it from. Qualitative interviews with experts working with educating the public will give insight as to solutions. The results will be published in a social science journal. A presentation will be prepared for use at conferences.
 * Abstract**
 * Overview**
 * Background and Significance**** /Methodology **
 * Dissemination**