The Media and Risk Perception.
L. J. Frewer, E. Campion and S. Miles, Department of Consumer
Sciences, Institute of Food Research Reading Laboratory, Early Gate,
Whiteknights Road, Reading, Berks, RG6 6BZ, UK, telephone +44 (0) 118 9357014,
The
recent BSE scare in the UK dominated the UK media. Both newspaper coverage and
television reporting focused on issues of risk, economics and trust in risk
regulators. Data collected regarding a range of different hazards indicated that
BSE was prominent among public risk concerns in the UK However, application of
preference mapping procedures to risk rating data indicated that perceptions of
risk to either the self, or to the average person, was not a serious
consideration to the UK public. For personal risk, BSE clustered with other
domestic hazards rather than those which were technological in terms of their
perceptual characteristics. Similarly, perceived risk to the average person was
very low, and the ability to protect the self moderately high. From this, it was
concluded that the amount of media coverage is relatively unimportant in
terms of risk perception formation. Whilst the availability heuristic from
such media exposure results in greater free recall of the hazard itself, it is
the content of that coverage which is likely to have the greatest impact on risk
perceptions.
Despite the high profile of the Chernobyl accident in
terms of the signal potential for nuclear radiation risk there was very little
press coverage of the hazard around the time of 10th anniversary of the accident
due to the BSE scare. Content analysis of newspaper articles (used in
conjunction with correspondence analysis) indicated that the pattern of
reporting for different hazards was differentiated. Little impact on public risk
perceptions of radiation risk were observed. Whilst this is arguably due to the
low level of media coverage resulting from the publicity surrounding BSE, it is
argued that in fact higher levels of coverage would have been unlikely to have
much impact on the absolute level of public risk perceptions. Whilst the UK
public trust at least some UK media, and most frequently use them to gain
information about risk, it is proposed that other social forces are likely to
influence their risk perceptions, including trust and credibility of risk
regulators, and factors such as personal experience of the hazard.
Acknowledgment.
Parts of the work reported here were partly funded by the UK Biotechnology and
Biological Sciences Research Council and partly by the European Commission.
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