May, Robert M. (author) and Pitts, Richard (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2000
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C20473
Notes:
Pages 15-25 in Joe Smith (ed.), The Daily Globe: environmenal change, the public and the media. Earthscan Publications Ltd., London, England. 263 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C20203
Notes:
Pages 81-104 in Anders Hansen (ed.), The mass media and environmental issues. Leicester University Press, Leicester, London, New York. 238 pages, Includes issues in communications with farmers and agricultural agencies after the Chernobyl catastrophe.
Authors follow the notion that ignorance is not simply the absence of knowledge, but rather has its own configurations. They use examples to illustrate how interest groups and news media "appropriate and emphasize those ignorance claims that advance and protect their own particular concerns." Examples include Alar pesticide and tobacco.
Findings of a content analysis and interviews with journalists and residents implied that journalists chose and shaped their risk related messages according to their own exigencies and that the influence of newspapers was mitigated by resident distrust and access to other information sources such as personal information networks.
