1. Sources of Information Cited in Agricultural Biotechnology News Stories in 2002 Laura M. Dininni, M.S. Candidate Dr. Joan Thomson, Professor Department of Agricultural and Extension Education Discussion In the agricultural biotechnology debate, the U.S. news tends to represent the viewpoints of economically and politically powerful stakeholders (Priest & Talbert, 1994). This research confirms the prevalence of citing economically and politically powerful sources, such as industry and government, in agricultural biotechnology reporting. Despite involvement in the debate and interest in the outcome, groups such as farmers and environmental organizations were rarely consulted as sources of information. Reliance on any one particular set of sources will provide audiences with only a partial picture of an issue. Frames that agricultural biotechnology industry sources employ downplay uncertainties in areas such as “ethics, morality, or risks, in favor of information that touts economic or health benefits” (Whaley, 2002). Downplaying uncertainties when publicly presenting an issue has the consequence of incomplete public conversations, potentially affecting critical public policy decisions. Therefore, how the media frames an issue can influence the course of our society. The information presented in the public sphere is essential to citizen participation in community life. The messages, frames, and sources that are shaping the opinions of the U.S. public are primarily those of economically and politically powerful stakeholders within the biotechnology industry and the U.S. Government. What implications does this have for democratic policy making and responsible consumer choices? Will citizens, relying on the ‘watchdog’ media, be supplied sufficient information to make decisions regarding the risk or value of agricultural biotechnology? Priest (1995) finds that the range of issues that surface in the dialogue when “nonscientists are asked to evaluate risks is not easily influenced by the narrow, source dominated coverage characteristic of this topic”. Members of the public ask questions that address a full range of ethical, economic, social and health issues. Unfortunately, thus far, the media have not necessarily reported the information that helps to answer these questions. Table 1. Sources Cited in Agricultural Biotechnology Articles in the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal in 2002 Overall Within Most Frequent Themes NPercentTradeWorld HungerGMO Release Source Industry Affiliated2112015 U.S. Government169407 EU Government64211 Developing Nation Gov’t64041 Other Government42200 University127131 Activist/group116011 Agri-related business64000 U.N. Affiliated53140 Farmer (s)42200 Private Foundation42000 Financial Securities32100 Ag Commodity Group21200 WTO/NAFTA affiliated21101 Other85030 None63361174 Total173100272421 Table 2. Percent of Articles Citing Industry, Government and University Sources by Paper* Sources NewspaperIndustryU.S. GovernmentUniversity Wall Street Journal26%16%7% Washington Post152715 New York Times15512 *None category omitted from calculation Data Analysis  The researchers developed a 30 variable code, based on the literature and the focus of the overall research, to systematically analyze the articles.  Two inter-coder reliability tests were run to verify the transferability of the coding scheme. Results showed an overall reliability of 78%-81% among four coders.  Each article was analyzed by examining the article characteristics and content; this study focuses on the sources and themes identified in the articles. Results  Not all articles cited sources of information. In fact, 63 of 173 (36%) articles had no acknowledged source of information, see Table 1.  Within the 110 articles that did cite a source, the most frequently cited sources were industry affiliated (21 of 110, 19%), comprising almost one-fifth of all agricultural biotechnology sources of information.  The next most frequently cited sources were U.S. Government affiliated (16 of 110, 15%), followed by university affiliated sources (12 of 110, 11%).  Activists (all types) were cited in 11 of 110 (10%) articles.  Farmers were only cited in 4 of the 110 (4%) articles.  The Wall Street Journal had the highest percentage (26%) of articles citing an industry source, see Table 2.  The Washington Post had the highest percentage of articles citing a U.S. government source (27%) and the highest percentage citing a University source (15%). References Audit Bureau of Circulation, Editor & Publisher, 1999. Retrieved August 8, 2002 from http://www.naa.org/info/facts00/14.html Herman, E., & McChesney, R. (1997). The global media: The new missionaries of corporate capitalism. London: Continuum. Hoban T.J., & Kendall, P.A. (1993). Consumer Attitudes about Food Biotechnology: ProjectReport 1993. Washington DC: US Department of Agriculture. Priest, S. (1995). Information equity, public understanding of science, and the biotechnology debate. Journal of Communication, 45, 39-54. Priest, S. & Talbert, J. (1994). Mass media and the ultimate technological fix: Newspaper coverage of biotechnology. Southwestern Mass Communication Journal 10(1), 76-85. Tankard, J.W. (2001). The empirical approach to the study of media framing. In S.D. Reese, O.H. Gandy & A.E. Grant (Eds.), Framing public life: Perspectives on media and our understanding of the social world (pp. 95-106). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Whaley, S.R. (2002, June). Genetic modification of the food supply: A content analysis of U.S. news magazine coverage, 1990-2000. Paper presented at the International Meeting of Agricultural Communicators in Education, Kansas City. Introduction Journalists are often accused of selecting economically or politically powerful sources of information for their stories, particularly when reporting a controversial issue. Source selection has been shown to influence news article content and issue framing. Because over 90% of consumers receive information about food and biotechnology primarily through the popular press and television (Hoban & Kendall, 1993) information presented by sources has the potential to significantly affect public understanding of this issue. This content analysis investigates sources and their use in framing agricultural biotechnology in U.S. newspapers in 2002. Frame analysis recognizes the ability of a media presentation to define a situation, the issues, and the terms of a debate (Tankard, 2001) without the audience realizing it is taking place. Therefore, the integrity and quality of media coverage is an important determinant of informed decision-making in a democracy (Herman & McChesney, 1997). Methodology  This study reports findings from a content analysis of agricultural biotechnology articles published in 2002 by three national newspapers: The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.  Published by three major firms, these papers have a combined national readership of 3,602,291.  Because of the credibility and resources of these newspapers, articles often pass from the nationals through the news hierarchy to regional and local holdings, potentially reaching a readership of close to 12 million (Editor & Publisher, 1999).  In addition, articles from the nationals may be reprinted in other news outlets across the United States. Data Collection  Through the literature, the following terms were selected to search for relevant articles: “ag and biotech OR GMO OR gm and crop OR gm and food OR agricultural and biotechnology OR genetically and engineered and crop OR ge and crop OR ge and food OR genetically and engineered and food OR genetically and altered and crop OR genetically and altered and food OR genetically and modified and food OR GMF OR genetically and modified and crop OR genetically and modified and organism”.  News content searches on Lexis-Nexis and Dow Jones Interactive, using the above search terms, identified 231 articles for the year 2002.  Any appearance of the keywords (search terms) in the headline and/or text was counted as a hit.  Invalid hits, primarily consisting of GMO stock reports and GM, General Motors, were eliminated, leaving 173 articles for analysis.