| Eating News: The Social Construction of Food in U.S. News Magazines, 1995--2004, examines the issue culture surrounding food in American society as constructed in news magazine texts. A quantitative content analysis of a systematic random sample of food-related articles in Time and Newsweek classified food-related topics, sources, and frames. A qualitative analysis examined a census of news magazine cover treatments of food-related stories. Finally, a qualitative textual analysis studied the framing of an individual food issue, that of genetically modified foods, in a census of GM food-related articles from the period. The final section classified the condensational symbols, including headlines, metaphors/depictions, catchphrases, exemplars, and sources, used in frame construction. The framing typology underlying the analyses, derived from Gamson (1992), defined the themes and counterthemes of American culture in terms of technology, power, dependence, and nationalism.;The content analysis showed that the food industry dominated food-related coverage published in news magazines. The food industry was the predominant topic category covered, (36.7% of all articles); more sources came from the food industry than from any other source category (29.8% of total sources); and food industry sources were the most likely to appear first in articles (24.3% of all articles). Within the normative power theme, "interest group liberalism" was the primary frame (55.4% of all articles). Dependence themes were apparent most frequently in articles on weight and health/disease, which most commonly employed the "self-reliance" frame. The "progress through technology" frame was used most often in articles on biotechnology and health/disease. The analysis of food-related covers similarly found a prevalence of normative cultural themes. Specifically, the theme of "progress through technology" dominated the countertheme of "harmony with nature," in which processed over natural foods, market efficient over sustainable production, the laboratory-created over the taste-guided, and science over tradition were constructed. The analysis of an individual food issue, that of genetically modified foods, also found that normative themes dominated the framing of GM foods, most notably the "progress through technology" theme as manifested in "feed the hungry," "food as medicine," and "new and improved" frames. In the normative frames, scientific, corporate, or governmental sources were most commonly found. When the "harmony with nature" countertheme was constructed, sources were most likely to be individual activists or groups. |
