Abstract
This chapter examines a particular aspect of British news coverage of two ‘food scares’ — BSE/vCJD1 (also known as ‘mad cow disease’) and salmonella infection in eggs. It focuses on the sub-section of news that can be described as ‘service journalism’ in order to examine the possibility that such coverage might provide progressive alternative perspectives to those which are part of a dominant ‘official’ discourse. In terms of the themes of this collection, the question is whether audiences are justified in putting their trust in service journalism; does it address the ‘problems of everyday life’ (in this case, food scares) as (sub-) political issues demanding collective, and therefore political forms of response, or as individualised problems requiring only consumption-based responses; does it address audiences primarily as citizens, or as consumers? In particular, I want to examine the arguments of Eide and Knight (1999) who suggest that despite the tendency of service journalism to ‘individualize problems’, it is ‘amenable to politicisation’ due to its focus on the same kinds of issues that are dealt with by the social movements and pressure groups which drive ‘subpolitics’ (1999, p. 525; see also Beck, 1994, pp. 22–3). They theorise their arguments via Habermasian notions of the public sphere (Habermas, 1989) and Ulrich Beck’s risk society thesis (1992b; 2000) and suggest a hybrid social identity in which citizen, consumer and client roles interact.
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Notes
P. Wilenius, ‘Gummer fights Mad cow boycott on British beef’, Today, 23 January (1990) p. 4.
P. Wilenius, ‘Gummer fights Mad cow boycott on British beef’, Today, 23 January (1990) p. 4.
M. Hornsby, ‘Mad cat disease found by scientists’, Times, 11 May (1990) p. 5.
D. Kemp, ‘Egg peril in mum’s cake at Christmas’, Sun, 20 December (1988) p. 4.
W. Grant-Evans, ‘Throw away cake if it’s iced’, Today, 20 December (1988) p. 1.
G. Greig, ‘Don’t use raw eggs if you ice the cake’, Mail, 20 December (1988) p. 9.
J. Kay, ‘The good cow guide’, Sun, 22 March (1996) p. 3.
N. Fielding, ‘Ministry denies threat to humans’, Mail on Sunday, 25 September (1994) p. 9.
J. Le Fanu, ‘Should we really be frightened this time around?’ Express, 21 March (1996) p. 8.
G. Hay, ‘Daily Mirror answers the key questions you are asking’, Mirror, 5 December (1988) p. 6.
J. Kay, ‘Eggs are all white and that’s no yolk’, Sun, 6 December (1988) p. 16–7.
J. Kay, ‘Eggs are all white and that’s no yolk’, Sun, 6 December (1988) p. 16–7.
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© 2007 Jeremy Collins
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Collins, J. (2007). Risk, Advice and Trust: How Service Journalism Fails Its Audience. In: Bakir, V., Barlow, D.M. (eds) Communication in the Age of Suspicion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230206243_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230206243_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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