Reflexive Modernization at the Source: Local Media Coverage of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in Rural Alberta

DAVIDSON, DEBRA J.; BOGDAN, EVA

The potential for reflexive modernization is defined by multiple factors, but the acknowledgment of risk is crucial, particularly among social groups that play a key role in risk minimization. This study offers an examination of the role of local media in response to the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in beef‐producing communities in rural Alberta. BSE is one of several global risk issues that reflexive modernization theorists argue have the potential to trigger a transformation toward a critically reflexive society in which such risks are minimized. Content analysis of newspapers in beef‐producing regions in Alberta, however, shows how local media framed BSE in a manner that maximized community cohesion and protection of local culture. This selective coverage of BSE in rural Alberta is quite likely to have contributed to, or at least reinforced, support for the current institutional structure of Canadian agriculture in beef‐producing regions, through the constriction of discourse.