The Effects of Media Coverage of Scientific Retractions on Risk Perceptions:

SAGE Open

Dilshani Sarathchandra¹ 

关键词: GM food;    risk perception;    social amplification of risk;    news media;    scientific retraction;   

DOI  :  10.1177/2158244017709324

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Sage Journals

【 摘 要 】

Media coverage of scientific studies identifying technological risks generally amplifies public risk perceptions. Yet, if subsequent media coverage reports that those studies have been retracted, are risk perceptions reversed or attenuated? Or, once amplified, do risk perceptions remain elevated? Answering such questions may improve our understanding of risk perceptions of some publicly controversial technologies, for example, childhood vaccines and genetically modified (GM) food. We engage with the social amplification of risk framework, especially scholarship on news media as a risk amplification (or attenuation) station. In a between-subjects experiment, we examine the extent to which perceived risk of GM food is influenced by (a) news of a study reporting that eating GM food causes cancer and/or (b) news of its retraction. Whereas initial news coverage amplified all measured risk perceptions, news of the study’s retraction effectively reversed them to nonamplified levels.

【 授权许可】

CC BY