Biotech Updates

US Local News Presents Diverse Views on Agbiotech than National News

March 9, 2007

In the United States, agricultural biotechnology is still one of the chief issues debated at the local level in some geographical areas. To understand how local newspapers frame news stories on the issue, an exploratory survey was conducted by Catherine Crawley as part of her research at the University of Tennessee.

Crawley considered a total of 1,134 news articles on agbiotechnology published by newspapers in Missouri and 508 news articles from newspapers in Northern California from 1992 to 2004. News stories were analyzed by considering the presence or absence of specified keywords, common phrases, images, sources of information and the connections among them.

Results of the study gave quantitative evidence that local newspaper coverage of genetic-engineering issues in selected US states is framed in diverse and complex ways. Among Crawley’s conclusions include the lack of the so-called ‘source-generated probiotechnology bias’ in local news stories on biotechnology.

The abstract, with links to the full paper for subscribers to the journal Science Communication, can be accessed at http://scx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/3/314.