Risk communication and social media during food safety crises: a study of stakeholders’ opinions in Ireland

Abstract

Social media is a particular communication platform which has witnessed an exponential growth in use and influence in recent years, democratising the communication process, and offering risk communicators a way of putting into practice those principles which are advocated to be at the core of risk management and communication. However, little is known about stakeholders' willingness to embrace this new form of communication in a food crisis. The current study presented an exploratory investigation of the opinions of Irish stakeholders on the position of risk communication in a crisis, with a particular focus on understanding what application social media may have. In-depth one-to-one interviews were carried out with key stakeholders holding frontline positions in managing and communicating about risk in the food sector in Ireland. The stakeholders identified risk communication as a central activity in a food safety crisis, driven by an obligation to protect both consumer health and the reputation of the Irish food sector. Stakeholders relied primarily on risk communication to disseminate information in a crisis so to educate and inform the public on a risk and to prevent confusion and alarmism; most did not explicitly value two-way risk communication in a crisis. The ability to effectively manage future crises may depend on stakeholders' willingness to adapt to the changing communication landscape, namely -their willingness to adopt social media and use it effectively. The findings indicate that the stakeholders interviewed are appreciative of the need to engage with social media in times of a food safety crisis. However, most valued social media as a one-way channel to help spread a message and there was little reference to the interactive nature of this medium. Implications for integrating social media into crisis risk communication strategies are discussed.

Food-system actors’ perspectives on trust: an international comparison

“…The (dis)advantages of social media use within the food system domain identified by participants in this study resonate with those outlined in academic literature (Rutsaert et al, 2014), and centre on lack of editorial control of media content and presentation of a particular rather than balanced view (Friel and Wills, 2014, Lozano and Lores, 2013, Prades et al, 2014, Regan et al, 2016, Rutsaert et al, 2013. In contrast to our findings however, Regan et al (2016) interviewed a similar sample of food system actors from Ireland in 2011 regarding social media use and found different results regarding the diversity of uses, and in particular the value placed on twoway communication. This highlights one potential explanation for the differences in regions noted in this study, namely that of the time elapsed between Study 1 and Study 2.…”

Perspectives of Development of Agriculture in Crisis by the Example of Present-Day Russia

“…Consequences of crisis in food sector for economy on the whole and means of fighting agricultural crisis in various countries are viewed in studies by such scientists as (Popkova et al, 2015a), (Popkova et al, 2015b), (Regan et al, 2016), (Smart et al, 2015), (Rakopoulos, 2015), (Morley et al, 2014), (Crescimanno et al, 2014), (Gliessman, 2014), (Sommerville et al, 2014), etc.…”

Functional Foods and Cancer On Pinterest and Pubmed: Myths and Science

“…We believe that it is of the utmost importance to follow developments in this virtual world, where messages of all kinds are rapidly proliferating [ 1 , 16 ] and to investigate whether information about food published on social media is scientifically accurate. Regan and colleagues [ 26 ] as well as other authors [ 27 , 28 ] pointed to the risk of news disclosure by social media. In their opinion, this fact may cause inaccurate or sensationalist information through unregulated communication area, unlike advertisement or traditional media, both regulated.…”