Sources of Information Cited in Agricultural Biotechnology News Stories in 2002 Laura M. Dininni, M.

1
Sources of Information Cited in Agricultural
Biotechnology News Stories in 2002Laura M.
Dininni, M.S. CandidateDr. Joan Thomson,
ProfessorDepartment of Agricultural and
Extension Education

• Results
• Not all articles cited sources of information.
  In fact, 63 of 173 (36) articles had no
  acknowledged source of information, see Table 1.
  
• Within the 110 articles that did cite a source,
  the most frequently cited sources were industry
  affiliated (21 of 110, 19), comprising almost
  one-fifth of all agricultural biotechnology
  sources of information.
• The next most frequently cited sources were U.S.
  Government affiliated (16 of 110, 15), followed
  by university affiliated sources (12 of 110,
  11).
• Activists (all types) were cited in 11 of 110
  (10) articles.
• Farmers were only cited in 4 of the 110 (4)
  articles.
• The Wall Street Journal had the highest
  percentage (26) of articles citing an industry
  source, see Table 2.
• The Washington Post had the highest percentage of
  articles citing a U.S. government source (27)
  and the highest percentage citing a University
  source (15).

Introduction Journalists are often accused of
selecting economically or politically powerful
sources of information for their stories,
particularly when reporting a controversial
issue. Source selection has been shown to
influence news article content and issue framing.
Because over 90 of consumers receive
information about food and biotechnology
primarily through the popular press and
television (Hoban Kendall, 1993) information
presented by sources has the potential to
significantly affect public understanding of this
issue. This content analysis investigates
sources and their use in framing agricultural
biotechnology in U.S. newspapers in 2002. Frame
analysis recognizes the ability of a media
presentation to define a situation, the issues,
and the terms of a debate (Tankard, 2001) without
the audience realizing it is taking place.
Therefore, the integrity and quality of media
coverage is an important determinant of informed
decision-making in a democracy (Herman
McChesney, 1997).

• Methodology
• This study reports findings from a content
  analysis of agricultural biotechnology articles
  published in 2002 by three national newspapers
  The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the
  Wall Street Journal.
• Published by three major firms, these papers have
  a combined national readership of 3,602,291.
• Because of the credibility and resources of these
  newspapers, articles often pass from the
  nationals through the news hierarchy to regional
  and local holdings, potentially reaching a
  readership of close to 12 million (Editor
  Publisher, 1999).
• In addition, articles from the nationals may be
  reprinted in other news outlets across the United
  States.

Discussion In the agricultural biotechnology
debate, the U.S. news tends to represent the
viewpoints of economically and politically
powerful stakeholders (Priest Talbert, 1994).
This research confirms the prevalence of citing
economically and politically powerful sources,
such as industry and government, in agricultural
biotechnology reporting. Despite involvement in
the debate and interest in the outcome, groups
such as farmers and environmental organizations
were rarely consulted as sources of information.
Reliance on any one particular set of sources
will provide audiences with only a partial
picture of an issue. Frames that agricultural
biotechnology industry sources employ downplay
uncertainties in areas such as ethics, morality,
or risks, in favor of information that touts
economic or health benefits (Whaley, 2002).
Downplaying uncertainties when publicly
presenting an issue has the consequence of
incomplete public conversations, potentially
affecting critical public policy decisions.
Therefore, how the media frames an issue can
influence the course of our society. The
information presented in the public sphere is
essential to citizen participation in community
life. The messages, frames, and sources that are
shaping the opinions of the U.S. public are
primarily those of economically and politically
powerful stakeholders within the biotechnology
industry and the U.S. Government. What
implications does this have for democratic policy
making and responsible consumer choices? Will
citizens, relying on the watchdog media, be
supplied sufficient information to make decisions
regarding the risk or value of agricultural
biotechnology? Priest (1995) finds that the range
of issues that surface in the dialogue when
nonscientists are asked to evaluate risks is not
easily influenced by the narrow, source dominated
coverage characteristic of this topic. Members
of the public ask questions that address a full
range of ethical, economic, social and health
issues. Unfortunately, thus far, the media have
not necessarily reported the information that
helps to answer these questions.

• Data Collection
• Through the literature, the following terms were
  selected to search for relevant articles
• ag and biotech OR GMO OR gm and crop OR gm and
  food OR agricultural and biotechnology OR
  genetically and engineered and crop OR ge and
  crop OR ge and food OR genetically and engineered
  and food OR genetically and altered and crop OR
  genetically and altered and food OR genetically
  and modified and food OR GMF OR genetically and
  modified and crop OR genetically and modified and
  organism.
• News content searches on Lexis-Nexis and Dow
  Jones Interactive, using the above search terms,
  identified 231 articles for the year 2002.
• Any appearance of the keywords (search terms) in
  the headline and/or text was counted as a hit.
• Invalid hits, primarily consisting of GMO stock
  reports and GM, General Motors, were eliminated,
  leaving 173 articles for analysis.

References Audit Bureau of Circulation, Editor
Publisher, 1999. Retrieved August 8, 2002 from
http//www.naa.org/info/facts00/14.html Herman,
E., McChesney, R. (1997). The global media
The new missionaries of corporate capitalism.
London Continuum. Hoban T.J., Kendall, P.A.
(1993). Consumer Attitudes about Food
Biotechnology ProjectReport 1993. Washington
DC US Department of Agriculture. Priest, S.
(1995). Information equity, public understanding
of science, and the biotechnology debate.
Journal of Communication, 45, 39-54. Priest, S.
Talbert, J. (1994). Mass media and the ultimate
technological fix Newspaper coverage of
biotechnology. Southwestern Mass Communication
Journal 10(1), 76-85. Tankard, J.W. (2001). The
empirical approach to the study of media framing.
In S.D. Reese, O.H. Gandy A.E. Grant (Eds.),
Framing public life Perspectives on media and
our understanding of the social world (pp.
95-106). Mahwah, NJ Lawrence Erlbaum. Whaley,
S.R. (2002, June). Genetic modification of the
food supply A content analysis of U.S. news
magazine coverage, 1990-2000. Paper presented at
the International Meeting of Agricultural
Communicators in Education, Kansas City.

• Data Analysis
• The researchers developed a 30 variable code,
  based on the literature and the focus of the
  overall research, to systematically analyze the
  articles.
• Two inter-coder reliability tests were run to
  verify the transferability of the coding scheme.
  Results showed an overall reliability of 78-81
  among four coders.
• Each article was analyzed by examining the
  article characteristics and content this study
  focuses on the sources and themes identified in
  the articles.