Media and risk: old and new research directions

Abstract

A macro‐view of the field of media and risk is offered by examining four main routes of media‐risk research. These routes are the media’s role in: providing risk knowledge to inform citizens; modulating public acceptability of different risks; motivating the public to take responsibility for, and action regarding, risks; and providing imaginative schemata regarding voluntarily chosen risks. Research tendencies in each of these routes are summarised and critiqued, with reference to methodology, theoretical frameworks and research foci, enabling articulation of new research directions. Methodologically, there is a need for more longitudinal, historical, contextual and interpretive studies of impacts of mediated risk at micro and macro levels, and more in‐depth, comparative studies between different risk types across different media forms and genres. Greater empirical engagement with risk‐oriented social theory such as risk society, governmentality, risk cultures and edgework would be productive. Under‐explored research foci include: the gaps in knowledge within the Sociology of News; the features of risk that make it a risk issue and how these features interact with various media forms, genres and audiences; and impacts of the variations in audience trust in different media on their trust in mass‐mediated risk knowledge and experience.

Keywords:

• media genre
• media form
• media impacts
• risk
• research patterns
• research directions
• methodology
• risk theory

Notes

1. Due to its quantitative orientation, many studies have been conducted within the psychometric paradigm, often attempting to replicate previous studies, and thereby consolidate knowledge.

2. Experiments abound in this research tradition, and many examples can be found in the journals, Communication Research and Science Communication.

3. Whilst sensation‐seeking and risk‐seeking are not synonymous, there is a clear link, particularly in voluntary risks such as surfing where, as skill levels increase, larger waves must be ridden to achieve the same thrill: here larger risks are a by‐product of seeking the most intense thrill (Stranger 1999).

4. ‘Aesthetic reflexivity’ as used by Lash (1993) emphasises the sensual body, and physical and emotional experience, as part of the reflexive self.