Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D06198
Notes:
Pages 11-35 in Karin Eli and Stanley Ulijaszek (eds.), Obesity, eating disorders and the media. Ashgate Publishing Limited, Surrey, England. 173 pages.
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.
Via online., Author described favorable media coverage and public relations support for new crop biotechnologies announced - and lack of scientific evidence of effectiveness during the following 18 years.
Abstract and citation via UI Library Catalog subject term search/Ebscohost.com., Study revealed that what editors applaud as their contribution to the development of northern Ghana was simply publishing challenges of the North in their various media outlets. Media stories fell short of fulfilling the tenets of development journalism in order to enhance progress in deprived communities. It proposed the re-orientation of journalists to play development advocacy roles.
Via online. 3 pages., Subtitle: A recent 8,000-word article in the New Yorker reaffirmed a trend in journalism of turning important scientific issues into a circus sideshow.
