Media actors’ perceptions of their roles in reporting food incidents

Previous research has shown that the media play a role in shaping consumer perceptions during a public health crisis [1‐6]. Communication through the media is a fundamental component of health promotion strategies that aim to influence consumer health behaviours [7]. The media can influence individuals through: setting the agenda and defining public interest; framing issues through selection and salience; indirectly shaping individual and community attitudes towards risk; and feeding into political debates and decision making [8].

The importance of public health professionals working with the media has previously been reported. It is vital that public health professionals work with the media because ‘if an issue does not exist in the media, then it is not really an issue for decision makers and the larger public’ [9] (p. 299). Additionally, the way in which public health professionals work with media, including how they choose to approach the media about an issue, can either promote consumer health or act as a barrier to improving health status [9]. In particular, forming relationships with media, rather than engaging with them reactively solely when an issue that the public needs to be alerted to arises, will increase media understanding of public health issues [10].

There have been investigations into how media report certain issues including obesity and chronic disease [11‐16], dementia [17], swine flu [18], cervical cancer [19], alcohol [20] and long term health conditions [3‐5]. There is also some research into journalists’ views about their self-perceived role and approach to reporting public health issues including swine flu [21] and health research [22]. In the context of food and media, investigations have most recently centred around how media frame food risk [23], how food incidents are reported in the media [24], the risk communication strategies used to manage food incidents (including media reporting) [25, 26] and factors influencing the media reporting of food safety issues [27]. Media play an important role in communicating information about food to consumers [23, 28‐30]. They are influential in shaping consumer food consumption and attitudes [31] and have a vital role to play in conveying risks related to food [32]. For example, major food incidents across the world have highlighted that media have an important role in informing the public during these incidents and that media reports can affect public trust in the organisations and people portrayed in the stories. However, there has been minimal investigation into the perspectives of media with regards to their role in reporting food incidents. This paper arises from a study investigating the actors that break and reinforce trust in the food system [33]. It reports the perception of media actors’ role in the reporting of food incidents where a food incident is defined as ‘any situation within the food supply chain where there is a risk or potential risk of illness or confirmed illness or injury associated with the consumption of a food or foods’ [34]. Considering the acknowledged importance of the media’s role in influencing public sentiment about food, the lack of information about media perceptions of its own role in the reporting food incidents is surprising.

If public health professionals could communicate their messages about food incidents more effectively through the media, this would contribute to informing the media and consumers with information in line with public health recommendations. However the disconnect between public health professionals and the media – for example the perceived difference in values – is a barrier to this occurring [7]. Therefore this paper aims to contribute to reducing this disconnect by presenting media’s views on their role in presenting information about food incidents and using this information to provide insights for public health professionals about how to work with the media. This paper is important because by seeking to understand media actors’ perspectives about their role, public health professionals can increase their understanding of how to work with media and ultimately portray a message in the media which enables consumers to engage in safe and health promoting behaviour.

The study reported in this paper is part of a larger study looking at trust in the food system across three countries. A protocol paper outlining the wider study on which this paper is a part has been published elsewhere [33]. In this paper we use the term ‘media actors’ to refer to individuals currently working within the media, or with previous experience working within the media, including print, radio and online.

Details of participants, including the type of media they worked for and their role are reported (Table 3). Eight media actors approached declined to participate (five in Australia and three in the UK).

This paper presents the views of media actors from three countries about their role in reporting food incidents. The purpose for publishing such a paper in a public health journal is the premise that public health professionals will be more successful in working with the media if they can adapt how they work with media based on their understandings of how media actors understand and perceive their own roles. Media actors see themselves as having two main roles when it comes to reporting information about food incidents – acting as a conduit for information and acting as a public watchdog (Figure 1). There were no clear differences in the understanding of these roles between media actors from different countries or those working across different media formats. The result of media actors enacting these roles is that the public receive information about what to do during food incidents, which they can then act upon. The media actors do not identify responsibility for how the information is received and acted upon. However the data show that there needs to be trust between consumers and the media, and this is influenced by a number of factors which we describe in this paper.

Media actors identify their role as acting in the public interest through providing a conduit for information and acting as a public watchdog (Figure 1). Therefore, clearly the media identify a role in providing the public with knowledge about food incidents. This represents an opportunity for public health professionals to work with media to ensure that the information provided to the media – and consequently presented to the public – is accurate and not misleading, and therefore consumer behaviour during a food incident is appropriate for the situation, safe and health promoting. Of interest is that media actors appeared to make assumptions about the trustworthiness of the source that they received information from, with media actors being less trusting of information provided by the food industry, with the assumption that during a food incident, food companies are ‘guilty until proven innocent’. On the other hand, information about food incidents provided by food regulators was assumed to be correct and not misleading. This represents an opportunity for regulators and other public health professionals as it suggests that there is already a degree of trust in these professionals by the media. It has been identified in other studies that media seek to broadcast the opinions of public health officials [21].

The media have been identified as an important source of health information for the general public [39], and this study confirms that media actors see themselves as having a role in communicating information about food incidents. This is confirmed by other studies. In one study, ten percent of the population reported using the mass media as their main source of information about health related issues [40]. The media operates ‘as an interface between the medical community, government and the public [and] it therefore plays a critical role in shaping public opinion regarding health issues’ [41], or as identified in this study, acting as a conduit for information by providing the information to consumers who then make their own decisions. In this study, media actors also view their role as acting as a public watchdog through provision of credible information and balanced reporting but also though investigating claims to arrive at the ‘truth’. This highlights that media personnel are concerned not only about presenting the facts through their role as a conduit for information but also concurrently checking that information through their role as a public watchdog, which can be described as upholding a responsibility to check the information presented to consumers. A study of media personnel reporting on the swine flu epidemic found that journalists ‘articulated a clear commitment to their roles as journalists: as public informants, independent and neutral’ [21]. Likewise, Forsyth et al. [22] found that journalists saw their ‘primary responsibility to be the education of the lay public’ and in the context of their reporting, expressed commitment to journalistic principles including accuracy, balance and independence. The presentation of information and exposure of misconduct which is obtained through investigation, or a public watchdog role, are both viewed as important aspects of journalistic work.

Despite the fact that media actors reported they uphold journalistic norms such as fair and balanced reporting and accuracy, for example, it must be questioned whether this is actually the case. Some of the media actors in this study did say that the media do put a particular slant on information when it is reported and engage in sensationalist reporting. Interestingly, those media actors who had worked outside media (for example higher education, science and industry sectors) were more likely to acknowledge external factors that may compromise fair and balanced reporting. Other participants did, however, identify workplace factors such as immediacy and newsworthiness which impact capacity to provide fair and balanced reporting. For journalists working in newsrooms, editors act as gatekeepers to what is presented. Cross media ownership and presentation of information on multimedia sites has eroded the autonomy of the individual journalist [42].

Örnebring [43] argues that these changes have been associated with a reconstruction of the concept of autonomy for those working in traditional media leading to a focus upon institutional rather than individual autonomy. What is valued is editorial autonomy and the reputation of the media which is associated with the trustworthiness of the medium. This is reflected in this study in the claim that the reputation of, and trust in the media source relates to the credibility and truthfulness of the information provided. Truth is understood differently via media however. For traditional media truth telling is associated with the presentation of accurate information while for bloggers it is associated with the presentation of a variety of views which enable the reader to arrive at their own conclusion [44]. Truth telling in turn, is related to public trust in the media as a source of information on which to base informed choice [44]. Our participants describe their role in terms of serving the public through providing timely and objective information and through investigating food issues to arrive at a truth.

It has previously been discussed that journalistic norms are ideological whereby the media position themselves as having these norms in order to assist in protecting professional boundaries and presenting journalism as a legitimate profession [45]. Deuze [42] argues for the development of a professional ideology in journalism in the 20th century based on shared values that “validate and give meaning” to journalistic work. The professional ideology for Deuze [42], consists of five ideal- typical traits including: provision of a public service through acting as a public watchdog; objectivity; professional autonomy; immediacy through presenting information as it becomes available; and journalistic ethics most commonly expressed as truth telling. For Deuze [42] these values legitimate journalistic practice. Lewis questioned whether these standards are truly reflected in practice or whether they are used to justify practice and to create professional boundary in a profession which lacks the characteristics of a traditional ‘profession’ [45]. This study supports both views with the majority of actors saying that they uphold journalistic norms but others, who sit outside media, saying that they are used to justify practice. However what is important is that the views portrayed in this paper indicate how different media actors see themselves and their work, and portray themselves to the wider public. These views, while conflicting, can be used by public health professionals to better understand how to work with media.

A strength of this study is the inclusion of media actors from various types of media including television, radio, online and newspaper from three countries. A potential limitation is the possibility that the methods used in this study (interviewing journalists without any prior development of a relationship or trust) would not have elicited views from journalists that indicated they were not acting in the public good (for example actions driven by business values).

It has previously been argued that social scientists need to understand and adapt to the conditions under which media reporting operates if they are to be succeed in introducing the findings of social research into public debates [46]. It would appear that the media can be viewed as a site for conflicting interests [47], where scientific sources manage media content to present themselves in the best light while journalists manage their sources to get the information they want [48]. In this study, media actors suggested that public health sources were more trustworthy than food industry sources. Furthermore, the media tends to reproduce mainstream views of health issues, marginalising views that contradict taken-for-granted understandings of the issue [49]. This creates a challenge for public health researchers who wish to influence public opinion via the media as the frames operating with public health are often at odds with those in the media and information presented may not be in line with public health recommendations. As a consequence, public health researchers may need to frame their findings to attract media attention through highlighting topical or newsworthy content [49] and/ or use their understanding of the positions from which media work, as explored in this paper. This has important implications for public health professionals. If public health professionals and other health practitioners understand how media perceive their role then the practitioners can respond with this in mind through presentation of a high quality message that fits with a public health agenda encouraging consumers to respond to a food incident appropriately.

Science reporters have also been found to use established networks or scientists with a public profile regardless of their expertise for comment on issues [50]. This may require a more proactive approach by public health professionals who can respond to media actors’ perception of themselves as conduits for information through providing the information they wish to be communicated to the public, rather than waiting for the media to find information from another source. Furthermore, public health professionals can highlight their qualifications and credentials to media actors to demonstrate that they are qualified to communicate the facts of the incident to media actors, who then report the facts to the public. Considering the trust media actors in this research has in public health professionals, demonstrating credibility as a source is not likely to be overly challenging. Finally, public health professionals can work with media as public watchdogs by suggesting areas of interest for investigation and either providing some information that will aid with this investigation and/ or providing direction to where they could find that information. Therefore public health professionals are in a position of power and have the ability to affect the health of consumers through how they choose to engage with the media. Despite this, working with the media is an area where most public health professionals have not been trained [10] and therefore this represents an area for development.

This paper adds to debate through presenting the views of media actors themselves about their role in reporting food information during food incidents. As indicated in this paper, media represent a crucial avenue through which consumers receive information during food incidents. The media therefore play a vital role in disseminating public health messages. The insights provided in this paper into media actors’ perceptions of their role in reporting public health information in the context of food incidents, might help public health professionals to work better with media, become more media savvy and ultimately ensure that an appropriate consumer response to food incidents which maintains safe and health promoting behavior is upheld. Future research could focus more on cross-country differences in ideas between media actors. It could also seek to better understand the nuances in understanding of roles between media actors from different media formats, and suggest communication strategies specific to media and public health professionals based on this.

^aA food recall is an action taken to remove food that may pose a health and safety risk to consumers from distribution, sale and consumption Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (2008). Food Industry Recall Protocol: A guide to conducting a food recall and writing a food recall plan Canberra, Food Standards Australia and New Zealand.

^bInterview identification system with ‘AU’ indicating Australian interviewee, ‘UK’ indicating UK interviewee, ‘NZ’ indicating NZ interviewee and ‘M’ representing ‘media actor’.