Dyson College of Arts and Sciences

Discussion Support among the data for both hypotheses sug- gests that coverage of the Pier 55 story focused on the drama among supporters and critics rather than concerns raised about the project itself, including discourse over Pier 55's impact on community resilience and recreation opportunities, whether it was appropri- ate to support the project with mostly private funding, and whether the processes involved with its develop- ment were sufficiently transparent. When game framed articles did address those concerns, they did not do so in depth. is was particularly true aer the law- suit was filed to stop Pier 55's construction. e lawsuit led journalists to present the story as a game between the plaintiffs and defendants. e focus became who had won the latest round of the game rather than the merits of the project itself, the impact Pier 55 would have on other kinds of stakeholders, and com- munity resilience. In order to understand more fully how Pier 55 was covered, it is also worth examining which me- dia chose to cover it. e 29 publications listed below (Table 2) wrote at least one story about Pier 55 during the time frame identified in this study. Sixteen of the publications could be characterized as general interest media, that is, they serve general audiences either in New York City or nationally. e other 13 publications could be characterized as special interest media, which appeal to niche audiences based on a particular subject area. Special interest media that covered Pier 55 were concentrated in two subject areas: business and archi- tecture/design. Once articles were coded for this study, they were examined to determine whether coverage differed among general interest and special interest media. In fact, coverage patterns were remarkably similar. Both types of media used game frames more oen than issue-based frames in their coverage, and game frames were more common aer the lawsuit was filed. e types of media that covered Pier 55 appear particularly relevant, however, in a closer analysis of stories using issue-based frames. By far, the design sub-frame was used most frequently. at is, despite the various types of resilience oriented conversations Table 1 Framing of Pier 55 stories Before Lawsuit (11/17/14 - 6/11/15) Aer Lawsuit (6/12/15 - 9/28/17) Number of articles Percentage of articles Number of articles Percentage of articles Game 21 50% 153 91% Issue-based 21 50% 16 9% Total 42 169 Table 2 Types of media that covered Pier 55 General interest media Special interest media New York publications National Publications Business Publications Architecture/design publications Chelsea Now Fox News Bisnow 6sq DNAInfo Guardian Business Insider Arch Daily New York Daily News Huffington Post Crain's Archinect New York Magazine Politico New York Business Journal Architectural Digest New York Post Wall Street Journal Curbed New York New York Times Dezeen NY1 Gizmodo Patch e Architects Newspaper e Villager e Real Deal Time Out New York Village Voice 63

• Cover