The rise and fall of risk reporting - Media coverage of human genetics research, 'False Memory Syndrome' and 'Mad Cow Disease'
The rise and fall of risk reporting - Media coverage of human genetics research, 'False Memory Syndrome' and 'Mad Cow Disease'
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DOI：
10.1177/0267323197012003002
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发表时间：
1997-09-01
影响因子：
2.4
通讯作者：
Reilly, J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kitzinger, J;Reilly, J
哪些风险引起媒体关注！特定威胁何时以及为何成为头条新闻！本文通过三个不同的案例研究，描绘了风险危机的兴衰，并通过对记者及其消息来源的采访来确定影响这些过程的关键因素。我们展示了消息来源竞争、记者培训、“新闻价值”、新闻动力以及新闻报道和媒体机构如何鼓励在特定时间强调某些风险，但鼓励其他风险辩论被完全忽视。我们认为，新闻制作过程的标准描述无法充分解释“风险”的媒体形象，除非它们与对“文化给定”的理解、随时间的变化、“正常”新闻实践的偶尔暂停以及对“风险报道”中发挥作用的特殊条件的考虑相结合。同样，我们的研究表明，“风险社会”的理论解释往往过于简单化媒体的作用。媒体和电视新闻并不热衷于报道风险，它们不适合对长期威胁进行高水平的报道。面对持续的不确定性和官方的沉默或无所作为，媒体很少能保持兴趣。尽管如此，对于那些认为风险评估“太重要而不能留给专家”的人来说，媒体可以作为公共信息和政治/政策影响力的一种途径。然而，不能假设媒体自动成为“风险民主化”的盟友，也不应该不加批判地庆祝一些非官方消息来源在吸引媒体关注方面的成功。
Which risks attract mass media attention! When and why do particular threats become headline news! Using three diverse case studies, this article charts the rise and fall of risk crises and draws on interviews with journalists and their sources to identify the key factors affecting these processes. We demonstrate how source competition, journalists' training, 'newsworthiness', news momentum and the organization of news beats and media outlets encourage certain risks to be highlighted at particular times, but encourage other risk debates to be entirely overlooked. We argue that standard accounts of news production processes fail adequately to account for the media profile of 'risk' unless they are integrated with an understanding of 'cultural givens', changes over time, occasional suspensions of 'normal' journalistic practice and consideration of the particular conditions which come into play on 'risk reporting'. Similarly, our research suggests that theoretical accounts of 'risk society' often oversimplify the media's role. Par from being eager reporters of risk, the press and TV news are ill adapted for sustaining high level coverage of long-term threats. Media interest is rarely maintained in the face of ongoing uncertainty and official silence or inaction. In spite of this, the media can serve as one avenue for public information and political/policy leverage for those who believe that risk assessment is 'too important to leave to the experts'. However, the media cannot be assumed to be automatic allies in the 'democratization of risk', and the success of some unofficial sources in attracting media attention should not be celebrated uncritically.