The role of policy narrators during crisis: A micro-level analysis of the sourcing, synthesizing, and sharing of policy narratives in rural Texas

How do policymakers respond to crises? The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) answers this question by focusing on the contest over policy narratives. This paper focuses on the individuals constructing those policy narratives, conceptualizing them as policy narrators. Using a case study approach, we analyze seven counties located in a major oil and gas formation in Texas, which in early 2020 faced both an oil bust and the onset of COVID-19. We explore four sets of propositions about how policy narrators source, synthesize, and share their policy narratives. We find that while their narratives vary, the structure of those narratives is similar; their backgrounds shape how they source narratives, and they tailor their levels of narrative breach to the action (or inaction) they hope for. They avoid casting other local actors as villains, place their audience as the hero, and situate themselves as either supporting or a member of that audience, stressing their common ties. From these findings, we put forward a working definition of policy narrators, identify how they fit into the NPF, and discuss how they relate to other types of policy actors, including policy entrepreneurs.

Automated summary

The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) examines how policymakers respond to crises through the contest over policy narratives. This study focuses on policy narrators, individuals who construct these narratives, by analyzing seven counties in Texas that experienced both an oil bust and the onset of COVID-19 in early 2020. The findings highlight that despite variations in their narratives, the structure of those narratives is similar, with policy narrators shaping their sourcing strategies and tailoring narrative breach levels based on their desired actions.