GM Crops in Hungary: Comparing Mass Media Framing and Public Understanding of Technoscientific Controversy

Vicsek, Lilla

doi:10.1080/09505431.2014.884062

Cited by 5 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Concerning the possible influence of the media on public risk perception, two main positions exist. On the one hand, the media can determine public risk perception by using specific framing 2 (McCarthy et al 2008;Song and Kim 2012;Vicsek 2014), thus establishing risk-positive cognitions, emotions, and behaviors in the case of risk-glorifying coverage (Fischer et al 2011). On the other hand, news media may not necessarily play a major role in public risk perception (Wahlberg and Sjoberg 2000), particularly if the concept of selective exposure is considered, which suggests that despite the wide range of media coverage, recipients tend to select their media consumption according to their already-existing attitudes (see, e.g.…”

Section: The Role Of Media In Public Risk Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality in risk reporting on energy issues in German news media

Schmidt

Thuß

Meyer

2016

Journal of Risk Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In media coverage, the context of the German energy transition, also referred to as Energiewende, casts a spotlight not only on various technology options (e.g. wind or coal power) but also on more abstract topics such as security of supply or electricity prices. Thereby, the public's assessment of energy-related issues may greatly rely on perceived risks. Focusing on the quality of energy-related risk reporting, this contribution therefore is intended to explore the German print and TV media discourse on energy options or topics. In our sample, one in three articles connects an energy option or topic with an evident or potential unwanted event. Although the media's effect on actual risk perception involves some controversies, researchers tend to criticize the media as being susceptible to framing and for failing to place unwanted events in perspective, e.g. by not presenting the corresponding likelihood of occurrence, which is necessary to define risk. If this critique holds true, accurate public risk assessment is partly hampered because media coverage implies uncertainty rather than providing all information available. We examined seven indicators of quality reporting derived from literature research: intensity, likelihood, controllability, desired uncertainty, sensationalism, emotional language, and type of unwanted event. Based on German energy media coverage in 2013, we found a relatively high occurrence of intensity and controllability, whereas likelihood and desired uncertainty were reported less often. By aggregating the indicators into a risk-reporting quality index, we did not observe a poor quality of risk reporting on energy issues. In contrast to previous research, the overall quality of energy-related risk reporting can be assessed as at least moderate, implying that the media depicts risks more precisely than assumed. The occurrence of quality indicators thereby significantly depends on the type of unwanted event rather than on the energy option considered. MotivationAlthough energy-related risks have always been a major public interest and media coverage concern, the advancing transition of the German energy system toward a more sustainable quality (Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology 2012) has added further complexity to the energy technology discourse. This contribution intends to explore the German media discourse on energy issues with a focus on its quality of risk reporting, thus not only contributing to risk communication research in general but also providing valuable insights into the current energy technology discourse.

show abstract

Section: The Role Of Media In Public Risk Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality in risk reporting on energy issues in German news media

Schmidt

Thuß

Meyer

2016

Journal of Risk Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In order to further explore how the images in my sample do political work, I intend to analyze on which register they serve as mediator tools conveying political messages. For this reason, and to complement previous research about Hungarian GMO media frames (Vicsek 2014) I employ visual framing analysis. Generally speaking, images are less intrusive than words, so the peripheral processing is activated by them in human cognition instead of the central one, furthermore, as research has shown, audiences may be more likely to accept a visual frame without question, while a textual message is more prone to criticism.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the GMO issue is inherently tied to the East-est axis, as GMOs are a western invention and import. Vicsek (2014) identifies two types of media frames in the investigated media content (ranging from 2007 to 2009). They entailed distinct word usage, views on moral evaluation, and ideas on who was to blame.…”

Section: Gmo and Its Oppositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the contrary, public debates on science and technology are relatively low-key. For example, there was some media attention to GMOs (Vicsek 2014) but it was nowhere comparable in scale with the debates in the USA, the UK, or Germany. When the Hungarian media did publish about GM crops or their local introduction, it was usually from within the anti-GM threat frame (Vicsek 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, there was some media attention to GMOs (Vicsek 2014) but it was nowhere comparable in scale with the debates in the USA, the UK, or Germany. When the Hungarian media did publish about GM crops or their local introduction, it was usually from within the anti-GM threat frame (Vicsek 2014). Visual materials generally mobilise on this alleged danger and shift discourses towards populist tropes which are based on fear.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

When Activism, Tactical Media, Visual And Participatory Media Involve High Stakes: Investigating The Visual And Participatory Aspects Of Science Communication

Bajusz¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

My research looks at specific applications and methods of the participatory model of science communication: the toolkit based on visual media, performance, participation, in large part derived from contemporary art (participatory art, tactical media, performance). Instead of focusing on practical applications, I carry out a more in-depth sociological analysis of such science communication, including how it exerts effects as a sociopolitical phenomenon. I conducted two case studies: on anti-GMO mobilization and pinkified cancer awareness. While constructing the cases, I describe what technologies I research, how they came to be adapted in Hungary, and who the proponents or opponents are in the debates. Focusing on the political messages and impact of visual and participatory science communication media, I research what types of ideological messages are transmitted by such media, through what mechanisms, and how far can these mechanisms be extrapolated. I analyze my data with visual methods, which I triangulate with focus groups, to inquire both about expert and lay interpretation, and whether the respondents comprehend the images’ rhetoric, or whether they relate to the topics on an affective level. I conclude that visual elements (in my cases inseparable from participation) engaged in political work by mobilising a plurality of mechanisms ̶ of weaponising subjectivity, depoliticising their producers, utilising the political work inherent in representations, shifting the discourse towards emotions, mapping ideology (meaning) onto feeling. Visual and participatory media directed discourse to the register of feelings and experience, reserving a privileged role to community-building, whilst positioning the actors outside the political field. I came to understand such science communication as public ritual: the ideological layers and political connotations of visual communications were so important that images were used as tools of ritualisation, rather than of information transmission. Art, even if rebranded as activism, entangled with science communication, will not cease to be art- that is working through a non-linear causality. In the observed cases, the real political work took place detached from discourse; in fact, in conceptual opposition to other discourses of the organisations. Unlike artists, political movements stake claims for power, and yet through novel science communication formats they can present their activity as being outside the domain of politics, whilst still having a political impact on an affective, ideological, institutional, intersubjective, and subjective level. In the cases I researched, visual and participatory media directed the discourse to the register of feeling and experience, and had a privileged role in either community-building or conferring meaning. Such media itself does political work by positioning the actors outside the political field. Through novel science communication formats, art movements are conflated with political committees, the global and corporate with the grassroots. The modernist, teleological notion of progress used to rely on science both for legitimacy and for positive sentiments. I would argue that in some instances novel formats of science communication (as public rituals) assume these roles of science, and also I suspect public rituals of science communication imbue ideology with sentiments and affects.

show abstract

Content Analysis in the Research Field of Technology Coverage

Gurr

Metag

2022

Standardisierte Inhaltsanalyse in Der Kommunikationswissenschaft – Standardized Content Analysis in Communication Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many technologies are fast-growing drivers of innovation and as such have the potential for major transformations of people’s lives. Related to that, technologies and particularly the development of new technologies (also called emerging technologies) call for a variety of actors who try to make themselves heard in the public sphere. Scientists, economic actors, politicians, regulators, and ordinary citizens try to have a voice in the public discussion about the development, implementation, and specific applications of technologies—thus, they strive to reach the audience through media coverage.

show abstract

GM Crops in Hungary: Comparing Mass Media Framing and Public Understanding of Technoscientific Controversy

Cited by 5 publications

References 41 publications

Quality in risk reporting on energy issues in German news media

Quality in risk reporting on energy issues in German news media

When Activism, Tactical Media, Visual And Participatory Media Involve High Stakes: Investigating The Visual And Participatory Aspects Of Science Communication

Content Analysis in the Research Field of Technology Coverage

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About