Iโve explored the genesis and amplification of varied media narratives, from Jared Diamondโsย collapse memeย and Paul Brodeurโs power lines/cancerย connectionย reportage to Vandana Shivaโs GMO/Indian farmer suicideย storyline.
One interesting pattern, as these cases suggest, is that sometimes the emergence and staying power of a particular narrative owes to an influential science writer, well-placed journalist, or popular activist.ย In other cases, a narrative coalesces around a stock villain, such as Monsantoas the great Satan, or a phrase likeย the โnew normal,โ a term that associates severe weather events with man-made climate change.
Letโs revisit a chapter from Dorothy Nelkinโs classic 1987ย book,ย Selling Science: How the Press Covers Science and Technology.ย She discusses the early coverage of GMOs in the 1980s:
Opposition to the bioengineered Flavr Savr tomato gained substantial media attentionโas much it seemed, on account of its irresistible potential for puns as for real evidence of risk. The genetically engineered tomato, introduced by the biotechnology firm Calgene in late 1991, was initially welcomed in the press as a fruit that would not rot on the way to the market. The product generated media stories on the โwondersโ of high-tech foodsโleaner meat, celery sticks without strings, crisper and sweeter vegetablesโand the press supported Calgeneโs effort to classify its product as a food rather than a drug that would be subject to FDA regulations. But then, as critics of biotechnology moved in, skepticism became fashionable, and journalists began to write about the tomato as a โfrankenfood,โ a โkiller tomato.โ There was a โtomato warโ and a โtomatogate.โ The idea of injecting mouse genes into food, the spectacle of chefs boycotting a tomato, the concern about โsafe soup,โ attracted reporters who covered this product as an example of the risks that were bound to emerge from biotechnology.
Nelkin goes on to note that the images pervading media coverage of biotechnology became โremarkably similar to those that had been projected during the nuclear power controversyโthe synthetic monsters, the mutant animals, the mad scientists, and an industry out of control.โ
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It is hard to undo a narrative once it becomes entrenched.
Read the full, original article:ย The Entrenched GMO Narrative
