ints 3300-final paper

Running Head: A DEGREE OR NO DEGREE? THAT IS THE QUESTION. 1

A Degree or No Degree? That is the Question.

Salgado, Maggie

INTS 3300.001

Dr. Gail Bentley

Texas Tech University

A DEGREE OR NO DEGREE? THAT IS THE QUESTION. 2

Abstract

This paper reviews possible reasons that may affect an individual’s choice of earning a

college degree or entering in the oil industry’s workforce of hydraulic fracking. The research

method is a content analysis of articles from the disciplines of mass communications and general

business. Some of the finds demonstrate how the media use framing to potential persuade

individuals to choose one side or the other of this complex issue. The results show just how

many factors an individual needs to concern before making a final decision about either join the

hydraulic fracking workforce or earning a college degree.


As the use of hydraulic fracking increases with the growth of the oil industry, so does the

concern of what effect this industry has on the communities and families that surround these

fracking sites. An even greater concern is the effect the job opportunities this industry provides

to a person as compare to a college degree. Using Repko’s (2012) interdisciplinary research

process (IRP) (p. 69) and the disciplines of mass communication and general business, this paper

examines whether or not is it beneficial for a person to obtain a college degree or to seek

employment into the petroleum industry.

STEP 1: State the Focus of the Paper

With the recent activity fluctuation of the petroleum industry and its use of hydraulic

fracturing to extract natural gas, there are concerns of how the oil industry has affected the local

community and the families that live there. Living in an area that is so close to the Permian

Basin, a potential boom or bust in the oil field could have many significant changes to the city of

Lubbock and surrounding areas in West Texas. A growing concern is the postsecondary

education of the individuals that make up these communities. One issue that is complex is

whether it is beneficial for an individual to seek employment into the petroleum industry before

obtaining a higher education at a university or college.

STEP 2: Justify Using Interdisciplinary Approach

The impact of hydraulic fracturing on families and communities is a very complex issue

that can be viewed from many different perspectives. If a problem cannot be solved or explained

using only one discipline, then by Repko’s (2012) standards it warrants the use of an

interdisciplinary approach to research probable outcomes to the question (p. 84). The issue of an

individual obtaining an educational degree higher than a high school diploma, or GED, is a

matter that is too complex to be addressed using only one discipline. For this topic, the


disciplines that will be used to explore this issue further are mass communications and general

business.

STEP 3: Identify Relevant Disciplines

The next step in Repko’s (2012) IRP is identifying disciplines that are possibly relevant

to providing a better understanding to this complex question (p. 143). Some relevant disciplines,

which could offer a better insight into this intricate problem, are education, psychology,

sociology, mass communications and general business. The discipline of education could help

explain the curriculum and how well prepare an individual is for college after high school.

Psychology would provide an insight into a person’s thought process and how their mental health

effects their decision. Sociology would explore the cultural environment of an individual and

see how the societal norms weigh in their judgement as well.

However, the most relevant disciplines to this complex problem are those of mass

communication and general business. The discipline of mass communication helps to explore

more about societal issues from the media perspective. General business investigates the

financial influences that the hydraulic fracking has on a community, which can effect an

individual’s choice.

STEP 4: Conduct a Literature Search

Repko (2012) states that a few reasons for conducting a literature search are to discover

what scholarly knowledge has been produced by the different disciplines and identify factors that

have contributed to the development of the problem over time (p. 168-169). In the discipline of

mass communication, Boudet, Clarke, Bugden, Maibach, Roser-Renouf & Leiserowitz, (2014)

provide many socio-demographic characteristics, such as the proximity someone’s home is to a

fracking site, have impact on an individual’s decision of supporting or opposing hydraulic


fracturing. Jones, Hiller & Comfort (2013) demonstrate how petroleum companies use public

and media relations to continue to promote the benefits of fracking and to address the concerns

of the opposition in order the benefit everyone that is involved. Deveau, (2014) on the other

hand, demonstrates how a community may come together to fight the oil industry to prevent

fracking in their community.

Using a subdiscipline of general business, economics, Siegel (2014) shows how a

community profited financially due to increase numbers of fracking sites and how some

community members reacted to the increased activity. Osmundsen, Aven, & Vinnem (2008) use

the oil industry as a model to explain how modern incentive theory is used to explain measures,

like obtaining insurance and creating safety measures, in an attempt to prevent dangerous

circumstances from occurring on a frack site. Jones, Hillier & Comfort (2015) discuss the

financial benefits that fracking will have in the United Kingdom, such increased tax revenues,

creation of jobs, investment opportunities, and the country’s ability to become independent from

foreign oil.

Step 5: Develop Adequacy in Each Relevant Discipline

In order for an interdisciplinarian to analyze the problem and evaluate each insight,

adequacy must first be develop in each of the relevant disciplines: mass communications and

general business (Repko, 2012, p. 193). Communications is defined as the art of transmitting

information, ideas and attitudes from one person to another (Dean, 2012, p. 3). In the field of

mass communications, the means by which a message is broadcast could be through many

different media outlets, such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines or social media sites

such as Facebook or Twitter.


It is important not to underestimate how the media frames an issue and its effect on a

community’s point of view. Shen, Ahern, & Baker, (2014) define framing as the process the

media uses to emphasize certain details or issues while deliberately leaving out other details (p.

99). In the research within this discipline, the recurring research methods used was case studies

and content analyses. The focus of these sources were mainly about the positive or negative light

that a certain medium use and the effect it had on the public’s viewpoints of hydraulic fracking.

In the discipline of general business, the basic economic concept of supply-and-demand

was a recurring underlining element. Fitzgerald (2013) provides a basic example of the supply-

and-demand concept by explaining how the “growth in reserves and production [have a]

dramatic price effect in the natural gas market” (p.1349). He states, “Flooding the market with

natural gas has [decrease] natural gas prices from earlier levels” (p. 1350). In other words, when

the supply of oil is low, the price of gas for a customer is higher; if the supply of oil was high,

the price for gas for the customer is lower than before. This effects how much the oil industry is

able to pay their employees because of how much revenue the industry makes at a given time.

STEP 6: Analyzing the Problem and Evaluating Insights

The Discipline of Mass Communication

Within the discipline of mass communications, the study by Boudet el at., (2014), reports on

a content analysis of surveys given to a sample group. Boudet et al., (2014) present an interesting

case, based on some of the surveys, that an individual’s viewpoint could be affected by factors,

such as how close an individual’s home is located to a fracking site and other socio-demographic

characteristics in an attempt to explain the support or oppositions given by the local community

to the process of hydraulic fracturing. As Shen et al., (2014) indicates with the definition of

framing, the media can use the findings from Boudet et al., (2014) and used a narrative, or tell a


story to the people (Shen et al., 2014, p 99), as a framing device to persuade an individual to one

side or the other of this issue.

With Jones, Hillier, & Comfort (2013), an insight from the subdiscipline of mass

communications via public relations is used. The focus Jones et al., (2013), makes is how the

United Kingdom’s government is pushing to become one of Europe’s top energy producers. The

United Kingdom’s government hopes to establish this by emphasizing all the good aspects that

hydraulic fracking can have on its country such as creating jobs and becoming less dependent on

imported gas. A positive perception like this could persuade an individual to believe that

obtaining a job at a fracking site is much more beneficial than the two or four years they may

spend earning an associate or bachelor’s degree. However, like in the U.S., the United

Kingdom’s oil industry is running into obstacles through environmental groups and local

communities that state the short-term gains of increased employment and revenues do not out

weight the long-term environment effects fracking will have on their resources. With the

possibility of more petroleum companies coming closer to the Lubbock area, Jones et al., (2013)

provides an example of how using public and media relations to promote the benefits of fracking

could be alluring to an individual and persuade them to lend support and join the hydraulic

fracking workforce.

Another subdiscipline of mass communications is advertising. Deveau’s (2014)

demonstrations how a New Brunswick community advertised nine steps for citizens to take in

order to counter the oil fields influence their community and prevent hydraulic fracturing. The

method used here could be described as experimental as these citizens applied these steps and

promoted their views with their campaigns of how the oil industry have negatively affecting

other communities and what the outcome for their community might be. This article is from the


viewpoint of an anti-shale-gas author and provides an example of how a community and its

citizens, through different forms of communications, can be persuaded towards a negative

opinion of hydraulic fracturing, thus adding to the complexity of an individual’s choice of

entering the industry workforce.

The Discipline of General Business

In the subdiscipline of general business, economics, Siegel (2014) describes the financial

benefits of hydraulic fracking to communities in the Marcellus shale region in New York and

Pennsylvania. Siegel (2012) explains that before the hydraulic fracking industry, “in 2002, the

average personal income [for this area] was about $25,470.” However, in 2008, when it was

discovered that the Marcellus shale “contained …up to 489 trillion cubic feet of natural gas,” this

trigger a major oil boom (p. 258- 259). In Pennsylvania, between 2007 and 2011, “shale gas

contributed roughly 7 billion dollars to [the state’s] economy” (Siegel, 2014, p. 259). This

information indicates how financially beneficial the hydraulic fracking industry was to that

community.

Jones, Hillier & Comfort (2015) also provide another example, using the United

Kingdom, of the financial benefits fracking will have to the country. As in Pennsylvania and

New York, “there is an estimated 23.3 to 64.4 trillion [square meters] of shale gas in and around

the Bowland Basin in the north of England” (p. 58). The Institute of Directors predicts that shale-

extraction would provide over 70,000 jobs in high unemployment regions and increased tax

revenues, investment opportunities, and the country’s ability to become independent from

foreign oil (p.58).

With so much talk about job creations, an individual contemplating a career in this

industry must research how much their yearly income will be regardless if they have a college


degree or not. According to Hargreaves (2012) in 2011, an oil rig workers made about $99,175.

The need for a postsecondary education was not necessary because most “companies themselves

generally provide in-depth training programs” (p. 1). With this high income, it is easy to see

where college for some individuals may not be a high priority. But for those individuals that

obtain a college degree in Petroleum Engineering, the annual income ranges from $147,520 to

$230,230, as stated by the U.S Bureau of Labor of 2014.

But as the study by Osmundsen, Aven, & Vinnem (2008), the potential for a major

accident or injury at a fracking site is something to take into account. Osmundesn, Aven &

Vinnem (2008) use the oil industry as an example of how modern incentive theory is used to

explain the economic incentives, like obtaining insurance and creating safety measures, to

prevent dangerous circumstances from occurring on a frack site. As Osmundesn, Aven &

Vinnem (2008) point out

Safety performance evaluation is often based on recording the near miss accidents or the

number of injuries. This is problematic, as there is not always any clear causality between

such measures and safety efforts (p. 138).

Although most oil companies have a safety guidelines and insurance as precautionary measures,

it does not always guarantee that no one will get hurt on a drilling site. This is just one of the

many other factors an individual must take into account when deciding about going to college or

working the oil field.

STEP 7: Identifying conflicts between insights

The major conflict of assumption from the literature was how useful hydraulic fracking

really was to a community. This value-laden assumption was an underlining issue in each of the

disciplines used to examine the complex problem. Using a sub-discipline of business; Jones el


at., (2015) highlights some of the economic advantages for hydraulic fracking, such as the

increase in tax revenues and job creations, for a community. But in the sub-disciplines of mass

communication (public relations and advertising), there are arguments for both the advantages

and disadvantages that fracking has on a community. Jones el at., (2013) shows how petroleum

companies are using public and media relations to validate how hydraulic fracking is valuable to

a community, again by highlighting the economic advantages of job growth and increase tax

revenues. The opposition in this article is still arguing the case that these economic advantages

will not our weight the negative environmental long-term effects, such as pollution and health

hazards, damage to landscapes, and the increase demand for water, that fracking will have on

their community’s resources.

STEP 8: Finding Common Ground

Of the four techniques Repko (2012) mentions for creating common ground, the

technique of transformation seems to be the best choice for the issue of seeking employment into

the fracking industry or attending a college or a university (p. 343). As Repko (2012) points out,

the advantage of taking this technique is that it does not force an individual to reject or accept

either of the viewpoints examined. Rather it allows interdisciplinarians to view each

assumptions or concepts from an unbiased lens, giving the reader more freedom to understand

and decided the better choice of the issue presented (p. 343). As defined by Repko (2012), this

technique of transformation is used for two conflicting oppositions or, in this case, viewpoints.

The views/assumptions of each opposition are place at the end of the spectrum of the problem at

hand; this is called “the degree of rationality”. Using this method, it is possible to study how

“the degree of rationality” will effect certain circumstances (Repko, 2012, p. 343). Siegel (2014)

provided an example from the literature in an attempt of transformation.


For an individual that is still contemplating forgoing or obtaining a college degree, when

it comes to the discussion of hydraulic fracking, there seem to be only two sides: pro-fracking

and anti-fracking. Siegel (2014) mentions how the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo,

propose a compromise in the counties of New York that are located in the Marcellus shale area.

Cuomo’s compromise was that fracking would only occur in the Southern Tier counties of

Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Steuben and Tioga, where there was no aquifers that could

potential be polluted and the 100 towns that passed bans on fracking would not be frack in (p.

260). Cuomo’s compromise is an excellent example of trying to create a middle ground to the

issue of fracking. Unfortunately, anti-fracking supporters still said no and were unwilling to

compromise. (p. 260)

STEP 9: Construct a More Comprehensive Understanding

With a better understanding from the discipline of general business, via the subdiscipline

of economics, and mass communication, via public relations and advertising, it is time to begin

to integrate these two disciplines in a way that provides a better understanding of the complex

issue. Media is something that effects everyone differently and can persuade us to believe

something that is not necessarily true. While principles of economics, such as the concept of

supply and demand, are based on a more factual outcome. Just as Deveau, (2014) uses the media

to paint a money hungry oil industry, this lens used to view hydraulic fracking is loaded with

bias and does not reveal every truth about the industry. Just as there may be other factors that

play a role in a person’s decision to enter into the hydraulic fracking workforce or into a

university or college. An individual may pursue a career in the oil industry because they need a

way to fund a college education, are undecided about which area of the industry they would like


to work in, or would like to gain experience in this field. They is more than just one reason as to

why someone would choose to earn or forgo a college education.

STEP 10: Reflect On, Test and Communicate the Understanding

There is a need for more research into this issue of whether it is beneficial for an

individual to seek employment into the oil field before earning a college degree. What was so

difficult about researching this topic was finding any sources that focus or mentioned any effects

hydraulic fracking had on any of the universities or colleges in fracking communities. A study in

the Permian Basin on the schools in their community, such as Midland College or the University

of Texas of the Permian Basin, could help show how the oil industry effects their numbers of

enrollment and shine more light on other factors that have an effect an individual’s reasoning for

earning or forgoing a college degree.


References

Repko. A. F. (2012). Interdisciplinary Research Process and Theory (2nd ed.). Los

Angeles: Sage.

Boudet, H., Clarke, C., Bugden, D., Maibach, E., Roser-Renouf, C., & Leiserowitz, A.,

(2014). “Fracking” controversy and communication: Using national survey data to

understand public perceptions of hydraulic fracturing. Energy Policy, 65, 57-67.

doi.10.1016/j.enpol.2013.10.017

Jones, P., Hillier, D., & Comfort, D. (2013). Fracking and public relations: Rehearsing

the arguments and making the case. Journal of Public Affairs, 13(4), 384-390.

doi.10.1002/pa.1490

Deveau, J. L. (2014). How to Fight Fracking. Alternatives Journal, 40(1), 28-34.

Shen, F., Ahem, L., & Baker, M. (2014). Stories that count: Influence of news narratives

on issue attitudes. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 91(1), 98-117.

doi:10.1177/1077699013514414

Siegel, F. (2014). The Poverty of Environmentalism. Society, 51(3), 258-261

Osmundsen, P., Aven, T., & Vinnem, J. E. (2008). Safety, economic incentives and

insurance in the Norwegian petroleum industry. Reliability Engineering & System

Safety, 93(1), 137-143. doi.10.1016/j.ress.2006.11.008

Jones, P., Hillier, D., & Comfort, D. (2015). Contested perspectives on fracking in the

UK. Geography, 100(1), 57-59.

Fitzgerald, T. (2013). Frackonomics: Some economics of hydraulic fracturing. Case

Western Reserve Law Review, 63(4), 1337-1362.


Dean, B. (2012). Mass Communications: Texas Tech Style. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.

United States Department of Labor. (2014, May). Occupational Employment Statics and

Wages for Petroleum Engineers. Retrieved from US Bureau of Labor Statistics

website http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes172171.htm

Hargreaves, S. (2012, May). Oil rig workers make nearly $100,000 a year. CNN Money.

Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/10/news/economy/oil_workers/

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