Mediatization of Water Problems in Literature from 2021 to 2024: Two Studies on Scarcity Unhealthiness, and Famine

E.Crespo J, González MDRM, Lirios CG, Sánchez MTG, Pacheco MDJC, Mendoza RC and Rodríguez MAV

Published on: 2024-05-01

Abstract

Public services have been the objective of research in the literature on governance since it was proposed to conceptualize them as common goods and thus be able to anticipate scenarios of collaboration and solidarity. Still, in the case of water supply and the payment of tariffs, the panorama is complex since, in the more developed cities, the policies of tariff increase have been favorable. At the same time, it has been a catastrophe in the suburbs and rural areas. In the first study, this paper aims to discuss such issues, investigating the contributions of literature and its proximity to the actors' meanings. A non-experimental, cross-sectional, and exploratory study was conducted with a non-probabilistic selection of informants from different sectors. An integral meaning that would contribute to governance was found. Still, the type of study, sampling, and analysis can only apply to the interviewees, suggesting the inclusion of other more complex categories such as hyperopia and helplessness. In a second study, the objective was to observe the impact of the agenda, framing, intensity, and participatory effect of the water problem on the socio-digital network (X ex Twitter). An explanatory, transversal, and correlational work was carried out with a sample of 9950 users selected considering their publications on some of the water problems: scarcity, shortages, unhealthiness, and high cost. The results confirm the media's impact on users' opinions and attitudes regarding water problems. About the state of the art, the results of both studies confirm water problems as central axes of the public, research, and socio-digital agenda.