Newspaper Coverage of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Outbreak in the United States: A Content Analysis

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).…”

“…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). Researchers recommend accessing experts as sources of science information as one way to counteract reporters' lack of expertise about such matters (Heinrichs & Peters, 2004;Ramsey, 1999;Whaley & Tucker, 2004), but increased scientific and agricultural literacy on the part of reporters is almost surely needed to choose expert sources wisely (Vestal & Briers, 1999;Whitaker & Dyer, 2000;Wingenbach, Rutherford, & Dunsford, 2003).…”

“…The fact that in this study no differences in coverage were found between science-specialty-beat reporters and other types of reporters should provoke trenchant questions from both scholars and journalists. Such questions might include whether science-specialty-beat reporters indeed can provide more comprehensive and informative coverage of science-intensive stories and, if not, whether their failure lies in low-levels of science literacy (King, Cartmell & Sitton, 2006) rooted in inadequate training (Vestal & Briers, 1999;Whitaker & Dyer, 2000;Wingenbach, Rutherford, & Dunsford, 2003) or in newsroom institutions that do not accommodate the exercise of their talents and skills (Chermak, 1995;Dunwoody, 1980;Gandy, 1982). In addition, relationships explored in the current study may be extrapolated and tested with regard to breaking news coverage of other agricultural crises, for example, Avian flu outbreaks or the 2008 salmonella outbreaks in the U.S.…”

“…First emerging in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s, BSE generated a large amount of emotionally-charged coverage in Europe (Sturloni, 2003;Washer, 2005), with subsequent outbreaks in Japan and the United States gaining attention from the press because of the potential economic, social, cultural, and geographic impacts of the disease (Ashlock, Cartmell & Kelemen, 2006;King, Cartmell & Sitton, 2006;Ten Eyck, 2000). 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).…”