Framing of Mad Cow Media Coverage

Feeding the Debate: A Qualitative Framing Analysis of Organic Food News Media Coverage

“…Framing research has been conducted to examine how food-related issues such as biotechnology (Lundy & Irani, 2004) and mad cow disease (Ruth, Eubanks, & Telg, 2005;Ashlock, Cartmell, & Keleman, 2006) are framed in print media, but no research has been conducted to explore framing of organic food in the U.S. media.…”

Impact of Reporter Work Role Identity on News Story Source Selection: Implications for Coverage of Agricultural Crises

“…Researchers have criticized the media for failing to report accurately about BSE and other zoonotic diseases (Peters et al, 2006;Roche & Muskavitch, 2003) and often exaggerating its immediate risks to humans (Raude, Fischler, Lukasiewicz, Setbon, & Flahault, 2004). Such reports caused decreases in beef consumption and, in the short term, hurt the U.S. beef industry (Ashlock, Cartmell & Kelemen, 2006;King, Cartmell & Sitton, 2006;Ruth, Eubanks & Telg, 2005;Schupp, Gillespie, O'Neil, & Prinyawiwatkul, 2004). Although several years have passed and other agricultural crises, such as the 2008 salmonella outbreak in produce imported from Mexico, have usurped BSE's media prominence, it is precisely because of BSE's novelty to both U.S. reporters and media consumers in 2003 and its impact on U.S. agriculture that the country's first BSE event was chosen as the focus of this study.…”

“…Other factors contributing to this decline include indications that agricultural producers and scientists may not turn to newspapers as their preferred medium of information exchange (Bouare & Bowen, 1990;Bruening, 1991;Bruening & Martin, 1992;Bruening, Radhakrislma, & Rollings, 1992;Dunwoody, Brossard & Dudo, 2009;Lundy, Ruth, Telg & Irani, 2006;Oskam, 1992;Reisenberg & Gor, 1989, Rollings, Bruening, & Radhakrislma, 1991 and that most newspaper reporters possess low levels of agricultural literacy (Haygood, Hagins, Akers, & Keith, 2005;King, Cartmell & Sitton, 2006). Existing coverage of agricultural topics has concentrated on controversy and risk, with positive stories receiving little play (Beaudoin & Thorson, 2004;Ruth, Eubanks & Telg, 2005;Ten Eyck, 2000). Other researchers note that newsworkers' routines and newsrooms' structures have not been conducive to covering agricultural news (Logan, 2001).…”

“…It has long been recognized that the media play an important role in disseminating science information to the public (Borchelt, 2008;Holland, 2009;Nisbet & Scheufele, 2009;Peters et al, 2008;Wilson, Code, Dornan, Ahmad, Hebert, & Graham, 2004), much of which is associated in newspaper stories with risks (Ruth, Eubanks & Telg, 2005;Ten Eyck, 2000). Previous research has called upon the media to provide more in-depth information for the public, especially about topics involving science, through encouraging reporters to attain increased levels of scientific literacy in order to provide more such in-depth coverage (King, Cartmell, & Sitton, 2006).…”

“…A story frame is built around a reporter's concept of newsworthiness, comprising such factors as conflict and proximity, as well as that reporter's sense of the story's contextual salience. Frames developed by reporters help to construct schema to help the public place issues into understood and shared contexts (Ashlock, Cartmell & Kelemen, 2006;Ruth, Eubanks & Telg, 2005). Reporters themselves are susceptible to agenda setting and framing of issues through the coverage of such stories by media they regard as particularly prestigious and credible (Breed, 1955;Dunwoody, 1979;Havick, 1997;Ten Eyck, 2000).…”