Science Communication 1999 Abstracts
Science Communication Interest Group
Did the Press Blow the A-Bomb Story of the Century? Reflections on the Coverage of Rocky Flats • Len Ackland, Colorado at Boulder • A group of leading U.S. journalists and historians recently picked the Atomic Bomb as the top news story of the 20th century. The public story began with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, continued through the Cold War, and persists today in terms of existing arsenals, nuclear proliferation, and the cleanup of contaminated weapons sites. How well did the media cover this big story? An examination of press coverage of the key Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver, Colorado provides some clues. Over more than four decades, press performance went through different phases.
Framing an Environmental Controversy in India’s English-language Press: A Study of Text in Context • Elizabeth Burch, Sonoma State University • This contextual analysis adapts Shoemaker and Reeses theoretical framework of the hierarchy of intra- and extra-organizational influences to investigate whether the framing of the environmental sustainability and development debate in India was affected by constraints upon reporters from two of India’s leading English-language newspapers reputed to follow opposing political ideologies: pro-government and anti-government. It was found that the papers’ political ideologies did not necessarily affect their support for environmental sustainability or economic development paradigms, thus the notion of hegemony did not prevail in this case.
Exploring Direct To Consumer Advertising And Generation • Cynthia-Lou Coleman and Kathy Brittain McKee, Berry College • Researchers know little about how consumers respond to a fast-growing trend in advertising, the advertising of prescription drugs. This study used focus groups to better understand how young, female consumers make sense of such ads. The consumers were somewhat passive. They were hesitant to approach their physicians about drugs and were comfortable letting their doctors make decisions for them about medicines. In general, subjects avoided risk information and preferred television ads to magazine ads.
Media And Medical News: New York Times And London Times Coverage Of Breast Cancer, 1960-1995 • Julia B. Corbett and Motomi Mori, Utah-Salt Lake City • This research compared the relationship between medical community activities and newspaper coverage of breast cancer in the U.S. and Great Britain from 1960-1995. In a time series analysis, New York Times coverage was strongly influenced by U.S. and British medical journals’ attention to breast cancer and by public announcements of prominent U.S. women. In Great Britain, where health care is largely a government undertaking and holds a less powerful position in the social structure, the London Times paid far less attention to breast cancer.
It’s Not Easy Being Green: Building the News Media Agenda on the Environment • Patricia A. Curtin and Eric Rhodenbaugh, North Carolina • Media critics have charged public relations practitioners with fueling the environmental backlash or “wise use” movement by providing information subsidies to the media which propose that claims of environmental damage have been exaggerated. This content analysis study examines external and internal information subsidies supplied to members of the Society of Environmental Journalists to examine the validity of such charges and to determine the characteristics of and differences between the two sources of environmental information.
The Relationship Of Risk Information Processing To Consideration Of Behavioral Beliefs • Robert J. Griffin and James Giese, Marquette University and Kurt Neuwirth, Cincinnati and Sharon Dunwoody, Wisconsin-Madison • A model proposes that the form of information processing individuals apply to risk information from the media and other sources affects the number of behavioral beliefs they consider to be important to their judgments about performing risk-reducing behaviors and eventually influences the stability or maintenance of those behaviors. This study found that deeper, more systematic processing of risk information is positively related to behavioral belief accession and consideration across two communities and three risks (two health risks and one ecological risk).
The Sources Iowans Trust: The Impact Of Involvement On Credibility Perceptions And Channels Used For Environmental Issues • Sunae Jo and Lulu Rodriguez, Iowa State University • Audience’s perceptions of credibility in this study was treated not as an attribute of sources but as a relational concept, dependent upon a receiver’s involvement with the message. The results show that receivers’ self reported involvement with environmental issues could predict their perceptions of source credibility and the extent of their information-seeking behavior. However, involvement did not predict the choice of interpersonal channels as the preferred source of environmental information.
Embargoed Press Releases and the Construction of Science News • Vincent Kiernan, Maryland, College Park • Data from a content analysis of embargoed press releases issued by the journal Science and of wire-service and newspaper coverage of Science were used to test a model of influences on news judgement of science journalists. Newspaper coverage was influenced largely by wire-service coverage of journal articles; the newsworthiness of the journal articles, as depicted by the press releases, and the geographic proximity of the authors of a paper in Science explained little of the coverage by the newspapers that were studied.
Smoke Got in Our Eyes: Biodiversity Concern and Media Framing of the 1998 Mexican Fires • Michael Maher, Southwestern Louisiana • In May 1998 fires from Mexico and Central America-some of them burning in highly biodiverse rain forests-created clouds of smoke that blanketed the United States for almost a month. This paper analyzes 349 news articles to determine how journalists framed the causes of the fires. It concludes that reporters framed the event chiefly in terms of human health, safety and convenience. Only three percent of the news framed the fires in terms of global biodiversity loss.
“A Chain Of All Things Good”: Online Breast Cancer Support And Institutional Change • Patricia Radin, Washington • When the diagnosis is breast cancer, the medical establishment in North America falls far short in providing urgently needed information and support. This study of a Halifax-based breast cancer web site finds that, for a limited number of women and their loved ones, online communication can help to empower, inform, and comfort. This is helping to promote change in the structure of North American medicine, where medical communication is already being influenced by self-help and consumerism.
Microbes, Outbreaks And The Media: Are U.S. News Magazines Suffering From Sleeping Sickness When It Comes To Covering Tropical Disease? • Gary D. Snyder, Ohio University • Tropical diseases are emerging as a threat to developed countries. This study examines how Time and Newsweek have covered tropical disease from 1975 to 1998. Coverage was minimal until 1994, when it tripled, and Ebola received a disproportionate amount of attention. A high percentage of stories have a link to the United States. The lack of communication research in the area of international health and tropical disease indicates a pressing need for further study.
An Index of Generalized Cancer Anxiety for Use in Health and Risk Communication Surveys • Craig W. Trumbo and Prathannna Kannaovakun, Wisconsin-Madison • This article describes the development and validation of an index measuring the construct of Generalized Cancer Anxiety for application in health and risk communication research. Various literatures are searched for the concept of cancer anxiety. The resulting set of 18 questions are evaluated using a survey of university employees (pre-test) and four surveys of communities involved in cancer rate investigations. A subset of 4-6 question items are identified with good reliability, test-retest stability, and validity.
Use Of E-Mail And The Web By Science Writers. A Longitudinal Study, 1994-1999 • Craig W. Trumbo, Kim J. Sprecker, Gi-Woon Yun, Wisconsin-Madison and Rebecca J. Dumlao Shearlean Duke, East Carolina • This paper investigates e-mail and Web use by science writers through a survey of the National Association of Science Writers executed in 1994 and 1999. The 1994 data shows that e-mail was expanding rapidly, and was more task-oriented than social. The 1994 survey sought to determine if a Web site could be an acceptable tool for science reporting. Respondents were favorable of the concept (those with early adopter profiles most favorable).
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