Online commentary on noise concerns, policy, and enforcement among readers in four countries

Decades’ worth of research findings tell us that most who are affected by noise exposure do not complain about it, and that noise complaints are not an accurate means of measuring community response. Much attention has been given to understanding the motivations of serial complainers, with less given to non-complainers. Are non-complainers unaware of noise policy, or how to submit a noise complaint? Research indicates that this is the case, and also suggests that some people think complaining would be a waste of time, that some are inhibited by social factors, and that some give up when previous efforts to address noise do not succeed. While noise complaints do not accurately measure community response, some policy and enforcement decisions are influenced by noise complaint data. Are there other potential means of capturing a measure of community response? This paper examines an unexplored resource for noise-related data online, where posts cover a broad range of experiences and opinions. Collecting reader comments in response to online news stories and blog posts, the paper uses content analysis to identify common themes, finding similar and disparate social expectations about noise policy and enforcement among readers from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.