Download Food Risk and Crisis Communication in Taiwan

Food Risk and Crisis Communication in Taiwan:
Cases of Dioxin Contamination
Mei-Ling Hsu, Professor
Department of Journalism
National Chengchi University
（徐美苓，政治大学新闻系教授）
Taipei, Taiwan
International Forum on Public Relations and Advertising – Crisis
Management and Integrated Strategic Communication, City
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, December 5-7, 2008
Objectives of the Study
Data: Partial results of un ongoing project examining dioxin-related
risk in food sponsored by the Department of Health, Taiwan
Perspectives: combining risk/crisis communication and journalistic
practices
=>
To examine risk communication strategies as represented in the news
media across various dioxin-events in Taiwan
To uncover the manifestation and interplay of various claims and
interpretations made by the stakeholders in communicating healthrelated risks
To propose an exploratory typology of how features of dioxin
contamination incidents can influence evolution of events as
represented in the media
To provide suggestions of the initiatives that can be taken by public
health decision makers (e.g., DOH) to respond to future health crises
effectively
Background: What Is Dioxin?
Unwanted contaminants almost exclusively produced by
industrial processes, including waste incineration, chemical
and pesticide manufacturing and pulp and paper bleaching
More than 90% of human exposure to dioxins results from
the intake of food; the major sources of dioxin in food are
dairy, beef, fish, pork, poultry, and eggs.
Accumulation of dioxin in human body may cause serious
health problems, including birth defects, damage to the
immune system, and cause various types of cancer.
Background:
Dioxin-related Risks in Taiwan
Increasing worldwide awareness of vulnerability to
environmental and health risks in the 21st century
Taiwan’s per capita dioxin load volume ranked among the
top ones due to dense population and small land area.
A metaphor of ‘poison of the century’ (世纪之毒 ) has been
used widely to refer to dioxins in Taiwanese society.
Several incidents involving dioxin contamination found in
soil, river, livestock, poultry, and fish since 2005.
=>Increased public anxiety and uncertainty about the
safety of drinking water and meat (both domestic and
imported)
Challenges to Taiwanese society and government to
safeguard food contamination of dioxins
Research Questions
What strategies have been used by various
stakeholders in addressing the Taiwanese dioxin
crises?
What patterns can be found in the mediated risk
communication of the dioxin crises? What are the
mechanisms underlying the occurrence of the
patterns?
Literature Review (I)
Lessons Learned from Risk and Crisis
Communication Literature
Nature of Crisis Communication
Approaches to Crisis Analysis
Benoit’s (1995) image restoration approach
Coomb’s (1995, 1999) crisis response typology
Stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984)
Technical translation strategies (Stephens, Malone,
& Bailey, 2005 )
Literature Review (II)
Problems of the much promoted crisis communication
strategy: meet the needs of the media
=>unrealistic when taking account of the journalistic
practices and constraints
News media’s routine practices to seek balanced reports
and to frame the event or issue into certain perspective(s)
may result in intriguing patterns of representing
stakeholders’ interactions in response to the crisis situation
=>Reconsidering factors of news framing and source
balancing strategies
Features of Taiwanese news media
Journalistic routines of source selection and balancing
Methods
A quantitative content analysis of dioxin news (N = 275)
Mainstream news media in a period of 2 and half years
(January 2005 – June 2007): TVBS News, ETToday, China
Times, United Daily News, Apple Daily, and Liberty Times
Pretest: overall intercoder agreement=.95
Analyzed categories:
Stakeholders
Risk and crisis communication message strategies
Qualitative interviews with health/environmental journalists:
having years of experiences in health reporting
having reported dioxin issues extensively from January 2005
to June, 2007
Content Analysis:
Stakeholders Identified in Dixon Stories
Governmental authorities
Department of Health (DOH)
Council of Agriculture (COA)
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA)
Other state institutions
Local authorities
Magistrates
Local health authorities
Local agriculture authorities
Local environmental protection
authorities
Other local institutions
Legislatives/councilors
Issue experts/institutions
Non-governmental
organizations (NGOs)
Residents/community
Proprietors
Content Analysis:
Risk and Crisis Communication Message Strategies
Claims and interpretations by the stakeholders (revised
from crisis communication and journalistic literature):
approval
mere explanation/clarification
defense/rebuttal
policy, compensation, and punishment announcement
questioning
suggestion proposing
accusation
victimization description
other.
Qualitative Interviews with
Health/Environmental Journalists
Name
News
Media
Gender
Educational
Background
Reporting
Experiences
Frequencies
in Dioxin
Reporting
Date of
Interview
SC
United
Daily
News
(UDN)
Female
BA in mass
communication;
MA in public
health
4 years in
health reporting,
and many other
years in lines of
Taipei City and
consumers.
5
December 26,
2007
HT
China
Female
Times (CT)
BA in mass
communication
9 years in
health
reporting
10
December 28,
2007
WT
Liberty
Male
Times (LT)
BA in English
literature, MA
in journalism
3 years in
health reporting,
and many other
years in
Environment
and consumer
protection
15
December 28,
2007
Related Interview Questions
How do you view the relationship between food risk and
the pubic? What do you think is the most important
information the public needs to know in this regard?
What angles in covering food risk are considered more
newsworthy the others?
In what aspects do you think that news media can assist
in communicating health risks to the public? In what
aspects do you think that news media have difficulty in
playing such a role? What kind of information do you
expect from the authorities (e.g., DOH, COA, EPA) to
provide in food risk communication?
What kind of relationship do you expect to have with the
sources releasing health risk information? What existing
problems do you perceive from the journalistic
viewpoints?
Results (I)
Content analysis of dioxin news
Dioxin incidents:
Dioxin contamination found in duck farms in Hsienhsi and
Shenkang Townships in central county of Changhua
[彰化县线西、伸港戴奥辛（二恶英）鸭蛋事件，N=175]
Imports of pork and pig viscera from the Netherlands were
suspended over a dioxin scare. The Dutch pork was found later to
be contaminated by dioxin
[荷兰进口猪肉疑因饲料受戴奥辛（二恶英）污染 ，N=35]
Sheep in Bali and Linkou Townships in Taipei County were found
with excessive dioxin
[台北县八里、林口羊只遭戴奥辛（二恶英）污染案 ，N=54]
“Shark liver” oil capsules from Canada were found to contain
unusually high levels of dioxin
[市售进口鱼肝油含过量戴奥辛（二恶英） ，N=11]
News Sources by Dioxin Incidents
What sources were quoted depends on:
Whether the incident was local (DOH had less control)
or involved imported products (DOH had more control)
Whether the incident involved nationwide inspection
(=> increased local sources)
Whether DOH was active or reactive (=> increased
NGO or expert sources)
Whether DOH had concealed risk information (=> less
DOH, more other sources)
Mediated Message Strategies by Stakeholders
Events involving imported products:
State and local authorities’ quotes were used mostly
as explanations and clarifications, and sometimes
even as policy, compensation, and punishment
announcements.
Quotes of issue experts/institutions were mainly
represented to propose suggestions, followed by
explanations/clarifications and questioning.
Locally oriented events:
Although both state and local authorities were
quoted mostly to provide
explanations/clarifications, other types of
mediated strategies were present in the stories,
especially when the authorities were engaged in
responsibility shifting and blaming each other.
Summary
Stakeholders of the dioxin-related crises were generally
quoted and represented in patterns that could facilitate
the news stories to be framed in a balanced manner.
The nature of the crisis as well as actions or responses
taken by the responsible agents may affect the interplay
of various stakeholders in the news coverage.
Such a dynamics goes far beyond what traditional crisis
communication literature has suggested about the media
strategies to be employed in managing risks or crises.
Results (II)
Interviews of Journalists
Journalists’ perception of food Risk coverage
Frame chosen: Events or conflicts as starting points to dig out
more policy or administration-related flaws
News sources: Not relying on governments as single sources
(balanced by non-government experts or organizations), but
lay public not priority source consideration
Refusal to be government loudspeakers vs. important channel
for risk information
Perception comparison between journalists and
expert/government sources
Government’s news-related criticisms: merely cover-up of
establishment’s incompetence and poor decision-making
Discussion and Suggestions
A Typology of Features of Dioxin Contamination
Incidents
Suggestions (tentative):
During the regular, non-crisis periods
Active in releasing health and environmental risk information
State authorities to cooperate well with local authorities in
facing proprietors, residents, the community, and NGOs in
communicating risks
During the crisis situations
Be honest in releasing crisis related information
To maintain well-communicated relationships with other
stakeholders and to avoid shifting of the responsibilities in
order to avoid media exaggeration of the inconsistencies and
conflicts
Thank you for your attention!