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SEE Biotech | |
| From The University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension | ||
| Sponsored by a grant from USDA/CSREES/IFAFS | ||
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Biased Press or Biased Public? Partisan Perceptions of Media Coverage of GM Food |
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Al GuntherProfessor of Life Sciences Communication |
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| Public debate over genetically modified food has been heated, with important consequences for public opinion and public policy. A key element in public discourse on such controversial topics is the role of partisans Ð people who are highly involved in the issue. This talk concerns the hostile media perception, the tendency for partisans on the GM food issue to judge mass media coverage of that issue as hostile to their own point of view. This perceptual bias is also interesting because it seems to contradict another kind of bias Ð the tendency to see information as more supportive, rather than more opposed, to oneÕs own position. | |||
| The talk will describe the results of an experiment with partisans on both sides of the GM food debate, and how differently these two groups perceived the same information presented in newspaper coverage of the issue. It will also explore some of the reasons for such divergent perceptions of the same information, and why this perceptual bias might be unique to information presented in mass media. | |||
| Speaker Biography | Speaker Contacts | Overall Agenda | |
| Copyright © 2003 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. /Extension Page created November 7, 2002 Last updated November 11, 2002 Hosted by the UWBC Web server |
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