| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Section: Biotechnology and Media Effects |
Distinguishing Red and Green Biotechnology: Cultivation Effects of the Elite Press
Martin W. Bauer is a faculty member of the London School of Economic’s Social Psychology Department and the Methodology Institute, and associated to the LSE BIOS centre.
Address correspondence to Martin W. Bauer, London School of Economics, Institute of Social Psychology, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom, e-mail: M.Bauer{at}lse.ac.uk
Public debates tend to operate with distinctions, which allow comparative judgments and choices. How such distinctions fall are matters of historical and social scientific interest. In the case of biotechnology, a number of distinctions were suggested in public debates over the years. During the 1990s the red/green distinction of biotechnology came to dominate media coverage, public perceptions, and regulation across Europe. By 1999, medical biotechnology (red) was treated much more favorably than agri-food biotechnology (green). This paper assesses the cultivation effects of the press on public perception. Little evidence for a cultivation effect that is consistent across Europe is found. However, the results show a strong convergence of press and perception over time: the results specify a direct relationship between changes in quality press discourse and changes in elite perceptions in relation to the red/green distinction. The study extends the cultivation approach from television to newspapers, and from direct to indirect measures of worldviews, using cross-national and longitudinal data.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  P. A. Maeseele and D. Schuurman Biotechnology and the Popular Press in Northern Belgium: A Case Study of Hegemonic Media Discourses and the Interpretive Struggle Science Communication, June 1, 2008; 29(4): 435 - 471. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. C. Nisbet and R. K. Goidel Understanding citizen perceptions of science controversy: bridging the ethnographic survey research divide Public Understanding of Science, October 1, 2007; 16(4): 421 - 440. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 H. P. Peters, J. T. Lang, M. Sawicka, and W. K. Hallman Culture and Technological Innovation: Impact of Institutional Trust and Appreciation of Nature on Attitudes towards Food Biotechnology in the USA and Germany Int. J. Public Opin. Res., June 1, 2007; 19(2): 191 - 220. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. Brossard and M. C. Nisbet Deference to Scientific Authority Among a Low Information Public: Understanding U.S. Opinion on Agricultural Biotechnology Int. J. Public Opin. Res., March 1, 2007; 19(1): 24 - 52. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. W. Bauer, K. Petkova, P. Boyadjieva, and G. Gornev Long-Term Trends in the Public Representation of Science Across the 'Iron Curtain': 1946-1995 Social Studies of Science, February 1, 2006; 36(1): 99 - 131. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|