The reporting of food hazards by the media: The case of Greece

Abstract

This study focuses on the coverage of food hazards by the Greek mass media. During the study period of three years, 311 articles from two daily and one Sunday newspaper were identified and analysed. The most important results drawn from the analyses are the following: (a) genetically modified foods was the most referenced food hazard; (b) there was often a simultaneous reference to more than one food hazard in the text; (c) most of the articles had informative content; (d) a periodicity existed in the media coverage of food hazards; and (e) the articles’ content was dependent upon the food hazard that was covered. Implications for future research are also discussed.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Giannis Perdikis for his help in the data collection and his valuable contribution to an earlier version of the paper. They also wish to thank the Editor of the Social Science Journal and two anonymous reviewers for their help in improving this manuscript.

Notes

1 Yoshikoder is a cross-platform multilingual content analysis program developed as part of the Identity Project at the Harvard Center for International Affairs by Will Lowe. For more information visit the following web address: http://people.iq.harvard.edu/~wlowe/CCA.html.