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Food Safety Works Colorado State University Extension
SafeFood Rapid Response Network

SAFEFOOD NEWS - Fall 1996 - Vol 1, No. 1

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How the Media Cover Food Safety and Nutrition News

Surveys indicate that the American public gets more news about food safety and nutrition from the media than from doctors and dietitians. To find out what kind of information they are getting, a recent study conducted by the Center for Media & Public Affairs (CMPA) analyzed three months of news coverage (May-July 1995).

During the time of the study there were no cases of saturation coverage that might skew the overall picture, i.e., scares over Alar on apples. Thus, the overall media profile obtained is probably typical of contemporary food safety and nutrition news. Some of the major findings:

* Nearly half of all stories mentioned the need to reduce dietary fat. Such massive coverage seems disproportionate to the role any one factor plays in diet and health. For example, a 1993 CMPA survey found that scientists rate the lack of fiber just behind dietary fat as a risk factor for cancer in America. Yet the media cited dietary fat as a cancer risk factor 47 times without ever mentioning the risk associated with a low-fiber diet.

* Disease prevention was second to dietary fat on the list of leading media topics. Preventing illness through proper diet was a major theme, especially in women's magazines. However, many articles treated individual foods as "magic bullets" rather than components of a balanced diet conducive to good health.

* The media covered several controversies involving food safety and government nutrition policy. Among the debates that made news were the health effects of manmade additives and contaminants, causes of foodborne illnesses, and the efficacy of food labeling regulations. The food industry drew frequent criticism for the dangers of artificial food additives and contaminants. News sources were almost twice as likely to criticize the harmful effects of these substances as to acknowledge their benefits. Notably, environmental and health activists were quoted five times as often as food industry sources on this issue.

* Lack of context was the greatest failing of food safety and nutrition news. While stories frequently featured advice on what to eat or avoid, they rarely specified how much, how often, or to whom the advice applied.

Source: Nutrition, Diet, & Health Update, April/June 1996, page 3; Media Monitor, Center for Media and Public Affairs 9 (6), Nov-Dec 1995.

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