Suchergebnisse

Novel risks generate copious amounts of uncertainty, which in turn can confuse and mislead publics. This commentary explores those issues through the lens of information seeking and processing, with a focus on social media and the potential effectiveness of science journalism.

An analysis of 373 daily newspapers in the Midwest found that community structure and an information subsidy from an environmental group affected press coverage of a story about pollution from industrial toxins. A press kit the group sent to some newspapers appears to have influenced the papers to run a story on industrial toxic releases, but it primarily prompted editors to delegate local staff to cover the story. Results indicate that the press' function to report or raise issues concerning industrial toxic releases and related health risks is tempered by community structure and particularly by community reliance on manufacturing.

In nearly three of four opportunities, newspapers covering a local high-level nuclear waste siting controversy in Wisconsin provided enough enabling information (details about people, places or things) to enable readers to follow up on the information. However, in only one-fourth of the opportunities did newspapers provide such complete information that a reader could act immediately. This content analysis of 12 daily and weekly newspapers, combined with interviews with editors, also found that newspapers in less pluralistic communities provided a greater proportion of detailed enabling information in their stories than did papers in more pluralistic communities. Greater proportions of enabling information were also associated with legitimized sources and with editors who identified the siting issue as a major concern both to themselves and to their readers.