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“Eat Your Peas! There are Starving Children in Africa” *

“Eat Your Peas! There are Starving Children in Africa” *. Dr. Joan Thomson, Professor Laura M. Dininni, Masters student Department of Agricultural and Extension Education Penn State University. A Content Analysis of U.S. Newsprint Coverage of

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“Eat Your Peas! There are Starving Children in Africa” *

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  1. “Eat Your Peas! There are Starving Children in Africa”* Dr. Joan Thomson, Professor Laura M. Dininni, Masters student Department of Agricultural and Extension Education Penn State University A Content Analysis of U.S. Newsprint Coverage of Agricultural Biotechnology in 2001 and 2002: World Hunger as Theme and Critical Event *Michael Pollan, The Great Yellow Hype, NYT, 3/4/01

  2. Rationale Awareness and Perceptions as a Result of Media Coverage • Role of Media • Over 90% of American consumers receive information about food and biotechnology primarily through the popular press and television (Hoban & Kendall, 1993). • Framing Theory An issue is framed … • when certain aspects of a perceived reality are presented and made more meaningful to the audience (Entman, 1993). • through the selection and use of sources referenced in articles and the presentation and assessment of their arguments (Whaley, 2002). • Role of Sources • Parnell-Reichert (1996) found a significant relationship between the use of issue stakeholders as news sources and the relative prominence of their particular issue frame in popular press coverage. • Sources bring the issue into focus through assessment of the issue, defining the debate; what is to be emphasized about the issue, and what is to be omitted

  3. Methodology • Keyword Selection • Newspaper Selection • Code Development • Data Collection • Data Analysis

  4. Keyword Selection • "ag biotech" OR "agricultural biotechnology" OR "GMO" OR "gm crop" OR "gm food" OR "genetically modified food" OR "GMF" OR "genetically modified crop“ OR "genetically modified organism“ OR • "ge crop“ OR "ge food" OR “genetically engineered crop" OR "genetically engineered food“ OR "genetically altered crop" OR "genetically altered food"

  5. Newspaper Selection • New York Times ‘the unofficial newspaper of record’* • Washington Post ‘breakfast reading for Congress’* • Wall Street Journal ‘subscribers are capitalism’s brightest stars’** *Ulrich’s Guide to Periodicals **Wall Street Journal website

  6. Code Development • Literature review • Prior biotechnology manual content analysis codes • Reliability: index of agreement

  7. Data Collection • Identified articles from the selected papers, indexed on • Lexis-Nexis (NYT, Washington Post) • Dow Jones Interactive/Factiva (Wall Street Journal) • Analyzed articles for • 6 Attention variables • Frequency, format and placement • 18 Content Variables • Frames • Themes • Sources and Actors • Treatment of topic • Tone, evaluation, aspect, angle • Coded information into excel data sheet • Cleaned and analyzed data using SPSS

  8. Results U.S. national newsprint coverage of agricultural biotechnology as it relates to world hunger

  9. Most Frequent Article Themes in 2001 and 2002

  10. World Hunger Theme Over Time African Refusal of GM Food Aid Release of U.N Report 2001 Theme 1 N = 9 Theme 2 N = 7 N = 16 (8% of 210) 2002 Theme 1 N = 23 Theme 2 N = 4 N = 27 (16% of 173)

  11. Framing of Articles with World Hunger Theme

  12. THE DISCUSSION OVER TIME Release of U.N Report 2001 N = 16 (8% of 210)

  13. HEADLINES 2001 • 1/25 WSJ Editorial, Jacobson: Consumer Groups Shouldn’t Reject Biotech • 1/26 NYT Pollack: Companies Unravel Rice Genome, Providing Model for Grains • 2/4 NYT Pollack: Ideas &Trends; A Food Fight for High Stakes • 2/6 NYT Letter to Ed., Jacobson: Re: A Food Fight for High Stakes • 3/4 NYT Pollan: The Way We Live Now: The Great Yellow Hype • 4/22 Post TV Week: “Harvest of Fear” PBS documentary announcement • 6/8 WSJ Leggett: Unveiling Rules on Genetic Engineering, Beijing Embraces a Controversial Science

  14. HEADLINES 2001 • 7/8 NYT Crossette: Move to Curb Biotech Crops Ignores Poor, U.N. Finds • 7/9 Post Editorial, Mallaby: Post staff: Food Fight • 7/10 WSJ Oyama: U.N. Urges Research Into Genetic Crops For Hungry Nations • 7/16 Post Letter to Ed., Biotech Food: An Unhealthy Endorsement • 7/30 WSJ Letter to Ed., Miller: Science vs. the U.N.’s Luddites • 8/5 Post Editorial, Biotech Panderers • 8/26 Post Editorial, Florence Wambugu: Taking the Food Out of Our Mouths • 10/14 Post Book World: A Closer Look at the Stuff We Eat • 11/25 NYT McCoy: A Corporate Believer’s Turnabout

  15. THE DISCUSSION OVER TIME African Refusal of GM Food Aid 2002 N = 27 (16% of 173)

  16. HEADLINES 2002 • 2/20 WSJ King: U.S. Courts African Allies for Brewing Biotech-Food Fight-Trade Official Seeks Closer Ties to Counter Europe’s Rejection of Gene Altered Crops • 5/9 WSJ Zimmerman: Gates Fights Malnutrition With Cheese, Ketchup Incentives • 6/10 NYT Reuters: U.N. Hunger Meeting Opens Today, Minus Most Top Leaders • 7/31 Post Weiss: Starved for Food, Zimbabwe Rejects U.S. Biotech Corn • 8/3 Post Weiss: Zimbabwe Continues to Block Gene-Altered Corn • 8/10 Post Weiss: Zimbabwe Ends Altered-Corn Dispute; Mugabe, Relief Agencies Agree to Grain Swap, Freeing Up Tons Of Food Aid • 8/18 NYT AP: Zambia Bars Altered Corn From U.S. • 8/23 WSJ Paarlberg: African Famine, Made in Europe • 8/23 WSJ Paarlberg: The Economy: EU Rejects U.S. Plea to Endorse Safety of Corn for Hunger Relief • 8/30 NYT Cauvin, Between Famine and Politics, Zambians Starve • 9/2 Post Mallaby, Phony Fears Fan a Famine

  17. HEADLINES 2002 • 9/4 NYT Cauvin: Zambian leader Defends Ban on Genetically Altered Foods • 9/4 WSJ Johnson: In Debate Over Modified Foods, Famine Weighs In • 9/5 NYT Dao: Protesters Interrupt Powell Speech as U.N. Talks End • 9/6 NYT Swarns: Criticized by the West, Mugabe is a Hero to Many • 9/7 NYT Editorial: Folly in the Face of Famine • 9/8 NYT Lacey: Engineering Food for Africans • 9/10 NYT Agence France-Presse: World Briefing Africa: Zambia: Food Aid Agreement • 9/11 NYT Swarns: Hunger in Zimbabwe Takes Toll on Education

  18. HEADLINES 2002 • 9/17 WSJ Editorial: Why Africans are Starving • 9/17 Post AP, Nessman: Famine Threatens 14 Million in Southern Africa • 10/3 WSJ Letter to Ed., Ambassador Burghardt: The Fears Behind the Big GM Food Fight • 10/30 WSJ Editorial, Kleckner: Boo! Biotech • 10/30 NYT After Study Zambia Rejects Altered Food • 11/17 Post Grunwald: Sowing Harvests of Hunger In Africa; Drought and Disease Fuel Famine in South • 11/17 Post Grunwald: Southern Africa Runs Short of Food and Hope; AIDS, Drought and Politics Fuel Famine • 12/26 WSJ Thurow, Mitchener, Kilman: Seeds of Doubt: As U.S., EU Clash on Biotech Crops, Africa Goes Hungry-Tinkering With Banana Genes Could Save Uganda Staple, But the Seeds Stay in Lab-Using the Poor as Guinea Pigs?

  19. Results • “A sound policy process would ensure that people affected by an issue have a meaningful say in decision-making, and can draw on expertise as they see fit.” (Cingranelli, 1993) Sources of Information Cited

  20. Sources of Information for World Hunger Articles

  21. QUOTES • United Nations… • 7/10/01 WSJ, Oyama: U.N. Urges Research Into Genetic Crops For Hungry Nations • “The world’s richest nations must get over their fear of genetically engineered food if they want to help eradicate poverty in the world’s poorest countries, a United Nations report says.”

  22. QUOTES • Developing nation government… • 8/18/02 NYT AP: Zambia Bars Altered Corn From U.S. • “In light of uncertainties surrounding the likely consequences of consuming genetically modified food”, Information Minister Newstead Zimba said on state television Friday night, the “government has decided to take this precautionary principle on this matter.” • 9/4/02 NYT Cauvin: Zambian leader Defends Ban on Genetically Altered Foods • “I am not prepared to accept that we should use our people as guinea pigs,” Mr. Mwanawasa said. (President of Zambia)

  23. Conclusions “Because most mediated public policy issues and controversies are inherently multifaceted and subject to multiple interpretations, the potential for framing abounds” (Nelson, 1999).

  24. Conclusions • “Public rhetoric, though not useless as a source of information about the true intentions of policy makers, does not reveal the whole story. A leader’s use of particular moral justifications for different types of foreign policy actions can be observed, and the varying frequency of use over time can be recorded. On this basis alone, we can draw conclusions about the public acceptability of different moral justifications for various foreign policy actions. But the full picture emerges only by assessing the consistency between the goals stated in policy rhetoric, and the set of actions pursued by policymakers, and the consequences of those actions.” (Cingranelli, 1993)

  25. Conclusions “Granted, it would be immoral for finicky Americans to thwart a technology that could rescue malnourished children. But wouldn’t it also be immoral for an industry to use those children’s suffering in order to rescue itself? The first case is hypothetical at best. The second is right there on our television screens, for everyone to see.” * *Michael Pollan, The Great Yellow Hype, NYT, 3/4/01

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