Measuring Policy Conflict and Concord

Measuring policy conflict and concord about natural resource and environmental issues has been a challenge for scholars. While some have assessed policy conflict and concord in particular locations, current approaches are inadequate for measuring and comparing them across settings or over time. This research note offers a methodological approach for measuring policy conflict and concord through a systematic analysis of the news media. The approach combines hand-coding and computer-based, semi-automated techniques. We illustrate it in an analysis of policy debates over shale oil and gas development in Colorado and Ohio between 2007 and 2017. This research note concludes with its methodological contributions for enriching comparative research on policy conflict and concord in natural resource and environmental issues, along with potential limitations.