IS THE MEDIA BIASED — pro or con — about genetically modified food? And how does it frame the controversy: in social, economic or environmental terms?

Sherrie Whaley, assistant professor of agricultural communication in the Department of Human and Community Resource Development, set out to find answers in her 2002 study, "Genetic Modification of the Food Supply: A Content Analysis of U.S. News Magazine Coverage, 1990-2000." Her purpose: to see how the media reports the issue and how it shapes public perceptions.

Genetically modified food is food produced through genetic engineering: the splicing and recombining of DNA of living organisms to produce new traits or varieties. Examples are StarLink corn and Roundup Ready soybeans.

Whaley analyzed articles in four U.S. weekly news magazines — Time, Newsweek, Business Week and U.S. News and World Report — from 1990 through 2000. She found that coverage of genetically modified food in the magazines was generally fair and neutral, that social and economic effects were the focus of the articles more often than environmental effects and that coverage of the issue soared in the last two years of the study period (1999 and 2000).

The findings are important, Whaley says, because perceptions are the basis for social actions related to risk and technology — in this case, whether a person accepts or rejects genetically modified food.

Knowing more about media coverage, she explains, will benefit OARDC scientists, Extension agents and others who work to tell people about controversial science and technology topics.