Initial UK public reaction to avian influenza: Analysis of opinions posted on the BBC website
Initial UK public reaction to avian influenza: Analysis of opinions posted on the BBC website
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DOI：
10.1080/13698570802166456
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发表时间：
2008-01-01
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
Houghton, Julie
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Rowe, Gene;Hawkes, Gillian;Houghton, Julie
2007年2月，禽流感抵达英国。萨福克郡的一家火鸡养殖场出现患病迹象后，大约 16 万只火鸡被屠宰，并实施了家禽移动控制。鉴于过去的粮食危机（例如疯牛病），预测英国公众的反应显然很重要：例如，大规模恐慌是否迫在眉睫，或者公众会冷静地做出反应吗？不幸的是，目前还没有任何理论能够准确预测公众对新危险或旧危险新表现形式的反应（霍克斯和罗正在出版）。此外，疫情爆发的速度和缺乏学术准备，削弱了社会科学家及时获取有关公众看法的重要数据以帮助理论发展或为政策制定提供信息的能力。不过，由于英国广播公司 (BBC) 网站上发布了对有关这一事件的公开问题的答复记录，因此可以对初步公众意见进行分析。在本文中，我们： (a) 证明这些数据的相关性和重要性，尽管其“代表性”存在缺陷； (b) 提供 3,000 多个回复的内容分析，并且； (c) 总结初步意见。结果表明，“公众”的最初反应主要包括对政府管理事务方式的不满以及对当前农业实践的担忧。事实上，对许多人来说，过去的粮食恐慌是理解当前危机的参考点，为行业贪婪、政府/科学无能和错误信息等问题提供了教训。然而，重要的是要认识到数据存在局限性，需要通过更受控的研究过程进行验证。
In February 2007, avian influenza arrived in the UK. Following evidence of illness at a turkey farm in Suffolk, around 160,000 birds were slaughtered and poultry movement controls were imposed. Given past food crises (e.g. BSE), it was clearly important to predict UK public response: for example, was mass panic imminent, or would the public respond calmly? Unfortunately, there is currently no theory that enables accurate prediction of public response to novel hazards or to novel manifestations of old hazards (Hawkes and Rowe in press). Furthermore, the speed of the outbreak, and the lack of academic preparedness, undermined social scientists' ability to acquire significant timely data on public perceptions in order to aid theory development or inform policy making. Analysis of initial public opinion is, however, possible, thanks to the recording of responses to open questions about this incident posted on the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) website. In this paper we: (a) justify the relevance and importance of this data, irrespective of deficiencies in its 'representativeness'; (b) provide a content analysis of the more than 3,000 responses, and; (c) summarize initial opinion. Results suggest that 'the public's' initial response largely comprised discontent in how government was managing matters and concern about current farming practices. Indeed, for many, past food scares served as a reference point for understanding the present crisis, providing lessons on issues such as industry greed and governmental/scientific incompetence and misinformation. It is, however, important to recognize that there are data limitations, which need validation through more controlled research processes.