Media effects on sustainable food consumption. How newspaper coverage relates to supermarket expenditures

Abstract

Information provision is often considered to have an important role to play in changing consumers' choices. However, there is still no consensus on the mechanisms by which information might influence specific consumer expenditures, especially in relation to environmentally friendly food products. This paper explores whether the public debate on sustainable consumption in UK broadsheets and tabloids relates to observed consumers' expenditures. It does so by relating the number of published articles on selected sustainability topics to consumers' food expenditure in a leading UK supermarket from May 2009 to May 2011, using regression analysis. We selected only regular supermarket's shoppers who frequently buy the Sunday editions of the analyzed newspapers. Results indicate very sparse and inconsistent correlations suggesting that the impact of information is only minimally effective. The number of newspaper articles relates mainly to expenditures on organic, wholegrain and low salt products, possibly indicating a preference for healthy food. No consistent effects are observed when media target a change in more general food categories (e.g. a reduction in food of animal origin), although we observed some influence on purchases of fish. Finally, results indicate some correlations with purchases of meat for the readers of the Telegraph. In order to contextualize some of the results, we applied content analysis to a subsample of published articles on organic food. The qualitative approach shows that the framing of the news is important: change is positively related to information proposed uncritically; and negatively to information contextualized as a highly structured debate.

Biases in consumers' assessment of environmental damage in food chains and how investments in reputation can help

“…Previous research suggests that consumers have a limited understanding of carbon footprint labelling (Bleda and Valente, 2009, Upham et al, 2011, Beattie, 2012. Additionally, sustainability information provided in the media has been shown to be often unrelated to expenditures in sustainable food categories (Bellotti and Panzone, 2016), suggesting that this type of information might not be very effective in driving behaviour. Nevertheless, in the absence of accurate information on the environmental impact caused by the production and consumption of products, consumers have been shown to rely upon external cues, which are likely to be imprecise and based upon specific (possibly biased) expectations and (possibly faulty) assumptions (e.g., Beattie, 2012, Gifford, 2011, Gifford, 2014, Whitmarsh et al, 2011.…”

Does online chatter matter for consumer behaviour? A priming experiment on organic food

“…Marketers and policy makers could thus highlight more such verifiable benefits of organic production in order to mobilize the agenda‐setting power of the media (Thøgersen, 2006). News media can be an effective channel for marketers and policy makers to bring issues into the public debate and onto their agenda and thus to potentially influence sustainable consumption behaviour (Bellotti & Panzone, 2016).…”

Food Intolerance and Customer Behavior Specifics as a Limiting Factor for Travelling

“…Information on gluten-free meals should, therefore, be announced in advance on their website (weekly menu) so that the consumer/coeliac patient can decide on their daily meals. Providing information is often considered an important role in consumer decision making (Bellotti & Panzone, 2015).…”