Abstract
Food irradiation has been acommercially viable postharvest technology fornearly 50 years (the actual idea of usingionizing radiation to extend the shelf-life offoods is over a century old), yet it has beenused only occasionally and sporadically.Interviews with reporters and the sources theyused at a Louisiana newspaper and a Floridanewspaper uncovered three cultural spherespresent in the debate over this post harvesttechnology – food, science/technology, andjournalism. Each of these spheres were pointsof contention for reporters and sources, andthis has had an affect on the adoption of thetechnology among those involved in the foodindustry. Interviews with both reporters andthe individuals they relied on as sourceselucidate how different issues encompassedwithin different cultural spheres have beenlinked to this post harvest technology, andhave been used to help shape this debate. Thesecultural spheres offer various groups power tocontrol relations with reporters, though thatpower can be usurped by others, including thereporters themselves. Interviews with reportersand their sourses may help us understand howthe values attached to cultural spheres aremobilized by various groups to make sense of acontroversial topic, and how those groups gainentrance to public arenas and are then able tomaintain their presence.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Altheide, D. L. and R. P. Snow (1991). Media Worlds in the Postjournalism Era. Hawthrone, New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Bagdikian, B. H. (1990). The Media Monopoly (3rd ed.). Boston: Beacon.
Bauman, Z. (1992). Intimations of Postmodernity. New York: Routledge.
Bell, D. and G. Valentine (1997). Consuming Geographies. New York: Routledge.
Bhaskaram, C. and G. Sadasivan (1975). “Effects of feeding irradiated wheat to malnourished children.” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 28: 130–135.
Brasch, A. and W. Huber (1947). “Ultrashort application time of penetrating electrons: A tool for sterilization and preservation of food in the raw state.” Science 105: 112–117.
Bruhn, C. M. and J. W. Noell (1987). “Consumer in-store response to irradiated papayas.” Food Technology 41: 83–85.
Bruhn, C. and H. G. Schutz (1999). “Consumer food safety knowledge and practices.” Journal of Food Safety 19: 73–87.
Burnham, J. C. (1987). How Superstition Won and Science Lost. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
Buss, T. F. and C. R. Hofstetter (1981). “Communication, information and participation during an emerging crisis.” The Social Science Journal18: 81–91.
Chinsman, B. (1987). “Food irradiation.” World Health (March): 10-11.
Clarke, A. and T. Montini (1993). “The many faces of RU486: Tales of situated knowledges and technological contestations.” Science, Technology, and Human Values18: 42–78.
Collins, H. and T. Pinch (1993). The Golem. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Debre, P. (1998). Louis Pasteur (trans. by Elborg Forster). Baltimore, Maryland: John Hopkins University Press.
Diehl, J. F. (1993). “Will irradiation enhance or reduce food safety?” Food Policy 18: 143–151.
Diehl, J. F. (1995). Safety of Irradiated Foods. New York: Marcel Dekker.
Dunwoody, S. and M. Ryan (1985). “Scientific barriers to the popularization of science in the mass media.” Journal of Communication35: 26–42.
Durant, J., M. W. Bauer, and G. Gaskell (eds.) (1998). Biotechnology in the Public Sphere. London: Science Museum.
Ericson, R. V., P. M. Baranek, and J. B. L. Chan (1989). Negotiating Control. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Fischler, C. (1988). “Food, self and identity.” Social Science Information 27: 275–292.
Fontana, A. and J. H. Frey (1998). “Interviewing: The art of science.” In N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds.), Collecting and Interpreting QualitativeMaterials (pp. 47–78). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.
Fuller, S. (1993). Philosophy, Rhetoric, and the End of Knowledge. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Gamson, W. A. and A. Modigliani (1989). “Media discourse and public opinion on nuclear power: A constructionist approach.” American Journal of Sociology 95: 1–37.
Gans, H. J. (1979). Deciding What's News. New York: Vintage.
Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Gregory, J. and S. Miller (1998). Science in Public. New York: Plenum.
Gunter, B., J. Kinderlerer, and D. Beyleveld (1999). “The media and public understanding of biotechnology: A survey of scientists and journalists.” Science Communication 20: 373–394.
Gunther, J. A. (1994). “The food zappers.” Popular Science 244: 72–78.
Habermas, J. (1973). Legitimation Crisis. Boston: Beacon.
Hardersen, P. S. (1997). The Case for Space. Shrewsbury, Massachusetts: ATL Press.
Harris, M. (1974). Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches. New York: Vintage.
Iyengar, S. (1991). Is Anyone Responsible? Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Johnson, J. C. and D. C. Griffith (1996). “Pollution, food safety, and the distribution of knowledge.” Human Ecology 24: 87–108.
Larsen, C. and W. White (1913). Dairy Technology. New York: Wiley.
Lee, M. A. and N. Solomon (1991). Unreliable Sources. New York: Lyle Stuart.
Lewis, G. H. (1998). “The Maine lobster as regional icon: Competing images over time and social class.” In B. G. Shortridge and J. R. Shortridge (eds.), The Taste of American Place (pp. 65–83). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.
Lidskog, R. (1996). “In science we trust? On the relation between scientific knowledge, risk consciousness and public trust.” Acta Sociologica 39: 31–56.
Loges, W. E. (1994). “Canaries in the coal mine: Perceptions of threat and media system dependency relations.” Communication Research 21: 5–23.
Magliocco, S. (1998). “Playing with food: The negotiation of identity in the ethnic display event by Italian Americans in Clinton, Indiana.” In B. G. Shortridge and J. R. Shortridge (eds.), The Taste of American Place (pp. 145–161). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.
Mallove, E. F. (1991). Fire from Ice. New York: Wiley.
Michael, M. (1996). “Ignoring science: Discourses of ignorance in the public understanding of science.” In A. Irwin and B. Wynne (eds.), Misunderstanding Science? (pp. 107–125). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Nelkin, D. (1995). Selling Science (revised edition). New York: W. H. Freeman.
Orlove, B. and E. Schmidt (1995). “Swallowing their pride: Indigenous and industrial been in Peru and Bolivia.” Theory and Society 24: 271–298.
Peters, H. P. (1995). “The interaction of journalists and scientific experts: Co-operation and conflict between two professional cultures.” Media, Culture and Society 17: 31–48.
Pilisuk, M., S. Parks, and G. R. Hawkes (1985). “University scientists and public trust.” Sociology and Social Research 70: 98–101.
Poulsen, J. (1996). “When journalism loses its senses: On mad cow disease and ritual sacrifice.” Nordicom Review 17: 3–9.
Priest, S. H. (2000). “U.S. public opinion divided Over biotechnology?” Nature Biotechnology18: 939–942.
Proctor, B. E. and S. A. Goldblith (1951). “Food processing with ionizing radiations.” Food Technology 5: 376–380.
Purdue, D. (1996). “Contested expertise: Plant biotechnology and social movements.” Science as Culture 5: 526–545.
Reed, L. (2000). “Domesticating the personal computer: The mainstreaming of a new technology and the cultural management of a widespread technophobia, 1964-1999.” Critical Studies in Media Communication17: 159–185.
Singer, E. (1990). “A question of accuracy: How journalists and scientists report research on hazards.” Journal of Communication 40: 102–116.
Shibutani, T. (1966). Improvised News. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill
Shortridge, B. G. and J. R. Shortridge (eds.) (1998). The Taste of American Place. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.
Ten Eyck, T. A. (2000). “Interpersonal and mass communication: Matters of trust and control.” Current Research in Social Psychology 5: 206–224.
Ten Eyck, T. A. (2001a). “Milk pasteurization and food irradiation: A reversal of fortune.” Repast 12: 4–5, 11.
Ten Eyck, T. A. (2001b). “Situating food: Economic and cultural aspects of Cajun Foodways.” Rural Sociology 66: 227–243.
Visser, M. (1986). Much Depends on Dinner. New York: Macmillan
Weiss, J. (1992). “Representative culture and cultural representation.” In R. M. and N. J. Smelser (eds.), Theory of Culture (pp. 121–144). Berkeley: University of California Press.
World Health Organization (1994). Safety and Nutritional Adequacy of Irradiated Food. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Wuthnow, R. (1987). Meaning and Moral Order. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Zelizer, B. (1993). “Journalists as interpretive communities.” Critical Studies in Mass Communication10: 219–237.
Zimmerman, C., G. L. Bisanz, J. Bisanz, J. S. Klein, and P. Klein (2001). “Science at the supermarket: A comparison of what appears in the popular press, experts' advice to readers, and what students want to know.” Public Understanding of Science 10: 37–58.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ten Eyck, T.A. Food irradiation in the news: The cultural clash of a postharvest technology. Agriculture and Human Values 19, 53–61 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015070122021
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015070122021