This paper examines the media coverage of the 2013 London cultured meat tasting event, particularly in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Using major news outlets, prominent magazines covering food and science issues, and advocacy websites concerning meat consumption, the paper characterizes the overall emphases of the coverage, the tenor of the coverage, and compares the media portrayal of the important issues to the demographic and psychological realities of the actual consumer market into which cultured meat will compete. In particular, the paper argues that Western media gives a distorted picture of what obstacles are in the path of cultured meat acceptance, especially by overemphasizing and overrepresenting the importance of the reception of cultured meat among vegetarians. Promoters of cultured meat should recognize the skewed impression that this media coverage provides and pay attention to the demographic data that suggests strict vegetarians are a demographically negligible group. Resources for promoting cultured meat should focus on the empirical demographics of the consumer market and the empirical psychology of mainstream consumers.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 143 Document Number: C22269
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Science and Development Network. 2 pages., Summarizes results of a survey of media coverage relating to genetically modified crops in five developing countries. Reports that "news stories often lack critical analysis of the issues at stake, and rarely represent the views of farmers."
Online via UI electronic subscription, Researchers used weekly meat production and sales data to assess how media depictions of LFTB affected consumer demand during and after the scare in 2012.
