This poster is part of a larger, long-term, project examining Southern U.S. beef consumers’ attitudes toward locally produced beef and their attitudes toward, and willingness to purchase, local beef in the event of a food... [ view full abstract ]
This poster is part of a larger, long-term, project examining Southern U.S. beef consumers’ attitudes toward locally produced beef and their attitudes toward, and willingness to purchase, local beef in the event of a food safety or animal handling concern. Previous work used face-to-face intercept surveys and random digit dialed phone surveys that asked consumers not only about their beliefs, but also who or what influences these beliefs (e.g., farmers, friends). Some respondents stated that friends and family, and to some degree colleagues and neighbors, were influential in their purchase decisions to buy local beef. Yet, when presented with a food safety or animal handling concern, some respondents indicated that no one influence their purchases, and in fact, they themselves influence others’ purchase decisions. These results led us to question the content of common media sources where consumers are likely to find information about food issues.
The intent of this project is to provide an exploratory understanding of the rhetoric surrounding the safety of local beef, which may provide clues as to the types of information that might influence consumers’ buying decisions. Of particular interest are the ways in which local beef food safety is framed in the media following high profile food scandals and scales. For instance, in 2012 ABC news ran a story about the widespread use of “pink slime,” a ground beef additive, and was subsequently sued by the meat processor for deformation and the broadcasting of misleading information. Another prominent case was Westland/Hallmark. After the Humane Society released videos of the slaughter of nonambulatory cattle, it raised a concern that the meat, destined for the National School Lunch program may be contaminated with Bovine spongiform encephalopathy or E. coli, leading to the largest recall of beef in US history.
In sociology, media and communication studies tend to focus on the print news media, specifically newspaper articles. In contrast, at least three agrifood studies have analyzed the influence of television broadcasts. After decades of decline in newspaper readership and TV viewership; media studies find an uptick in the spread of news articles via the internet, especially the circulation of news stories via social media. Thus, we use Access World News to examine a broad range of media sources for information about local beef food safety including not only traditional news outlets (e.g., newspaper articles, newswires, television transcripts, magazines), but also the blogs and audio and video files that have been publically catalogued. Focusing on Alabama, we searched the years 2007-2018 using keywords such as local foods, beef, and food safety. After eliminating extraneous “hits” (e.g., community calendars, recipes), 2,877 results were identified. These data were analyzed using NVivo for claims about the safety of local beef.
