Coverage of organic agriculture in North American newspapers: Media: linking food safety, the environment, human health and organic agriculture

Abstract

Purpose

The project explored the ways in which the topics of organic food and agriculture are discussed in representative North American media outlets in reference to food safety, environmental concerns, and human health.

Design/methodology/approach

Articles from five newspapers were collected and coded using the content analysis technique and analyzed for topic, tone, and theme.

Findings

For a six‐year time period, 618 articles on organic food and organic agriculture are analyzed and the prominent topics are found to be genetic engineering, pesticides, and organic farming. Articles with a neutral tone with respect to organic agriculture and food accounted for 41.4 percent of the articles, while positively toned articles garnered 36.9 percent. The themes human health, food safety, and environmental concerns were discussed with positive reference to organic food and agriculture in 81, 50, and 90 percent, respectively, of comments pulled from the articles.

Practical implications

Analysis of these articles over time, between media outlets and by topic allows for understanding of media reporting on the subject and provides insight into the way the public is influenced by news coverage of organic food and agriculture.

Originality/value

Research that analyzes media coverage for how it portrays the topic of organic food and organic agriculture with respect to health, food safety, and environmental concern, and concludes that articles about organic production in the selected time period are seldom negative.

Citation

Cahill, S., Morley, K. and Powell, D.A. (2010), "Coverage of organic agriculture in North American newspapers: Media: linking food safety, the environment, human health and organic agriculture", British Food Journal, Vol. 112 No. 7, pp. 710-722. https://doi.org/10.1108/00070701011058244