Media Discourse and the Social Construction of Risk

Stallings, Robert A.

doi:10.1525/sp.1990.37.1.03a00060

Cited by 66 publications

(73 citation statements)

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“…In particular, we explore the role of the media in enacting definite senses of the disaster. Such an approach must focus on the media's discursive practices (Foucault, 1972) and the mediation of social constructs (Dahlgren, 1995;Stallings, 1990). Molotch & Lester (1974), in explicating how "occurrences" become "events," propose that events become significant as demarcations of time and ultimately through their construction as resources for discourse in public events.…”

Section: Sensemaking and Identity Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In his support of a constructionist model of media, Gamson (1988, p. 165) notes, "We have a public of interacting individuals who approach media discourse in an active way, using it to construct their own personal meanings about public events and issues." Stallings (1990) describes "keynoting," or the presentation of images that guide our collective attempts to make sense of life, including its risks. As a demarcation of time, the anniversary of the Westray explosion serves to remind the public of the event and to reconstruct it annually in a way that incorporates new information, action, or response.…”

Section: Sensemaking and Identity Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…She further considers how the choice of verbal and visual imagery and tone shapes the ensuing public discourse. Fishman (1980) calls this "seeing and not seeing," while Stallings (1990) refers to "absent accounts." He identifies the construct of the "claims maker" to contrast absent accounts to "winning accounts," produced by successful claims makers.…”

Section: Extracted Cues and Creation Of The Plausiblementioning

confidence: 99%

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Making Sense of Bad News: The Media, Sensemaking, and Organizational Crisis

O'Connell

Mills

2003

Canadian Journal of Communication

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This paper explores the construction of organizational crisis through the discourse of media. Using a critical sensemaking framework, the authors conclude that the media serve as a disproportionate influence in the creation of plausible organizational narrative after crisis. They implicate the practices of journalistic work and the relationships between news workers and those holding power in organizations. They use the 1992 explosion at the Westray coal mine in Nova Scotia, Canada, where 26 men died, to illustrate these contentions. They find that among available and plausible early narratives of this event, enactment of a discourse of natural disaster and tragedy has prevailed over those that incorporated human agency and organizational culpability.Résumé : Cet article explore la construction de crises organisationnelles faite par le discours médiatique. Utilisant un cadre critique pour interpréter les faits, les auteurs concluent que les médias ont une influence disproportionnée dans la création d'une narration organisationnelle plausible après une crise. Pour expliquer cette influence, les auteurs impliquent les pratiques du travail journalistique ainsi que les relations entre les travailleurs des médias et les détenteurs du pouvoir dans les organisations. Ils illustrent ces affirmations en se rapportant à l'explosion de 1992 dans la mine Westray en Nouvelle-Écosse, Canada, où 26 hommes sont morts. Ils trouvent que, parmi les premières narrations disponibles et plausibles de cet événement, la promulgation d'un discours de désastre naturel et de tragédie l'a emporté sur les discours incorporant l'action humaine et la culpabilité organisationnelle.

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Section: Sensemaking and Identity Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sensemaking and Identity Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Extracted Cues and Creation Of The Plausiblementioning

confidence: 99%

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Making Sense of Bad News: The Media, Sensemaking, and Organizational Crisis

O'Connell

Mills

2003

Canadian Journal of Communication

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“…Les médias ont joué un rôle central dans le façonnement de l'opinion publique au sujet de la dépendance aux tranquillisants (Gabe et Bury, 1988;Bury et Gabe, 1990;Gabe et al, 1991), comme ils l'ont fait pour d'autres questions de santé (Stallings, 1990). Dans le cas de l'Halcion, ils ont fourni un véhicule pour les diverses expertises publicisées et ils ont augmenté l'intérêt au sujet des risques impliqués dans l'utilisation de ce traitement médical.…”

Section: Le Rôle Des Médiasunclassified

La controverse sur l’Halcion en Grande-Bretagne : une étude sociologique

Gabe

2008

smq

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Cet article présente une analyse des événements entourant la suspension, en octobre 1991, par le British Licensing Authority du permis de vente du très populaire somnifère Halcion (triazolam). L’auteur suggère que ces événements mettent en lumière la crise grandissante de la médecine moderne et des relations sociales des soins de santé. Il examine quatre éléments qui ont contribué à faire de l'Halcion un sujet de controverse publique avant sa suspension et son interdiction ultérieure : les débats entre experts médicaux, le développement des poursuites judiciaires, le rôle des médias, et la réponse de l'État.This paper offers an analysis of the events surrounding the suspension of the licence for the widely used sleeping tablet Halcion (triazolam) by the British Licensing Authority in October 1991. It is argued that these events highlight a growing crisis in modern medical treatments and in the social relations of health care. This is illustrated by focusing on four elements which have contributed to Halcion becoming a public issue and to its suspension and subsequent banning, namely the claims-making activities of medical experts, the development of legal challenges to medicine, the role of the media and the response of the state

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“…Times 06~07~01 tens of thousands of brains have been stored without consent in hospitals across Britain. Times 21~05~03 As with other stories (Stallings, 1990), this one could run on because it was possible to discover fresh examples of the same phenomenon in other sites. The reporting of a census of retained organs gave further opportunities both to stress the scale of the problem and to emphasise that it was not confined to the one or two locations where the news had initially broken but was a national and even an international problem, of a scale hitherto unrecognised: evidence to the McLean inquiry, seen by The Sunday Times, reveals there are 6,607 hearts, lungs, brains and other organs stored in Scottish hospitals.…”

Section: Express 31~01~01mentioning

confidence: 99%

Commodification of Body Parts: By Medicine or by Media?

2006

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Commentators frequently point to the involvement of biomedicine and bioscience in the objectification and commodification of human body parts and the consequent potential for violation of personal, social and community meanings. Through a study of UK media coverage of controversies associated with the removal of body parts and human materials from children, we argue that an exclusive emphasis on the role of medicine and the biosciences in the commodification of human materials ignores the important role played by commercially motivated mass media organisations. Analysis of the language of news reports covering the period of the organ retention controversies in the UK reveals the ways in which the mass media contribute to the commodification of body parts by recruiting them for use in the manufacture of a media scandal. This is achieved through use of horror language, the fetishisation of certain body parts, emphasis on the fragmentation of the body, and the use of a variety of rhetorical devices to convey enormity and massive scale. Media participation in the commodification of children's body parts has profound implications for practices and policies in relation to use of body parts, and has significantly influenced the governmental regulation of science and medicine. The role of mass media deserves fuller recognition by theorists of body commodification.

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Media Discourse and the Social Construction of Risk

Cited by 66 publications

References 0 publications

Making Sense of Bad News: The Media, Sensemaking, and Organizational Crisis

Making Sense of Bad News: The Media, Sensemaking, and Organizational Crisis

La controverse sur l’Halcion en Grande-Bretagne : une étude sociologique

Commodification of Body Parts: By Medicine or by Media?

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