The Media’s Taste for Gene-Edited Food

Recent gene-editing technologies are heralded by proponents as a revolution for developing gene-edited foods (GEFs) while critics demand increased governance and scrutiny of potential societal impacts. Governance of GEFs is different in the United States, where GEFs are entering the market, and Europe, which restricts GEF development. Definitive regulations for governing GEFs are not yet solidified in either region. We identify and compare how English-language media in the United States and Europe portray potential risks, benefits, and regulation of GEFs, and we explore how these portrayals may reflect their regulatory environments. Results show that the regions similarly prioritize benefit frames that emphasize the social and scientific progress GEFs may bring, and few articles express skepticism about potential benefits. Comparing samples across regions exposes differences between Europe and the United States in the risk and benefit portrayals and in governance initiatives. Both regions prioritize policy risks that are counter to their current oversight regimes: the US media sample focused on GEFs being underregulated while the European sample emphasize risks of too much regulation. This may demonstrate the power of media to reflect and even cultivate public opinion and may influence future policy revisions within these distinct regulatory environments

Business · Corporate governance · Economics · Political science · Public economics · Public relations · Scrutiny · Skepticism · Climate Change Communication and Perception · CRISPR and Genetic Engineering · Genetically Modified Organisms Research · Law

• Sociotechnical imaginaries of gene editing in food and agriculture

  Open Access•Ashmita Das, Diana Cordoba et al.•Public Understanding of Science•2025

  Incluir item

• Regulating gene editing in agriculture and food in the European Union

  Open Access•Sonja Lindberg, Carmen Bain et al.•Sociologia Ruralis•2023

  Incluir item

• Gene-Edited Food Adoption Intentions and Institutional Trust in the United States

  Open Access•Sonja Lindberg, Daniel Peters et al.•Rural Sociology•2023

  Incluir item

• Identifying public trust building priorities of gene editing in agriculture and food

  Open Access•Christopher L Cummings, T Selfa et al.•Agriculture and Human Values•2023

  Incluir item

• Who Does the Public Trust? The Case of Genetically Modified Food in the United States

  Open Access•John T Lang, William K Hallman•Risk Analysis•2005

  Incluir item

• GM Foods and the Misperception of Risk Perception

  Open Access•George Gaskell, Nick Allum et al.•Risk Analysis•2004

  Incluir item

• The new frontier of genome engineering with CRISPR-Cas9

  Open Access•Jennifer A Doudna, Emmanuelle Charpentier•Science•2014

  Incluir item

• Biotechnology and the Popular Press in Northern Belgium

  Open Access•Pieter Maeseele, Pieter A Maeseele et al.•Science Communication•2008

  Incluir item

• Biotechnology in Switzerland

  Open Access•Heinz Bonfadelli, Urs Dahinden et al.•Public Understanding of Science•2002

  Incluir item

• The Role of Scientific Source Credibility and Goodwill in Public Skepticism Toward GM Foods

  Open Access•Kathleen P Hunt, Dara M Wald•Environmental Communication•2020

  Incluir item

• Of Society, Nature, and Health

  Kathleen M Rose, Dominique Brossard et al.•Environmental Communication•2020

  Incluir item

• “Words of mass destruction”

  Open Access•Guy Cook, Peter Robbins et al.•Public Understanding of Science•2006

  Incluir item

• Attitudes to genetically modified food over time

  Open Access•Mathew D Marques, Christine Critchley et al.•Public Understanding of Science•2015

  Incluir item

• Mass media framing of biotechnology news

  Open Access•Leonie A Marks, Nicholas Kalaitzandonakes et al.•Public Understanding of Science•2007

  Incluir item

• The Media and Genetically Modified Foods

  Open Access•Lynn J Frewer, Susan Miles et al.•Risk Analysis•2002

  Incluir item

• The Influence of Trust and Perceptions of Risks and Benefits on the Acceptance of Gene Technology

  Open Access•Michael Siegrist•Risk Analysis•2000

  Incluir item

• Framing as a Theory of Media Effects

  Open Access•Dietram A Scheufele•Journal of Communication•1999

  Incluir item

• Arguments and actors in recent debates over US genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

  Open Access•Katherine Mintz•Journal of Environmental Studies…•2016

  Incluir item

• The Precautionary Principle in EU Regulation of GMOs

  Open Access•Artem Anyshchenko•Journal of Agricultural and…•2019

  Incluir item

• Attention Cycles and Frames in the Plant Biotechnology Debate

  Open Access•Matthew C Nisbet, Mike Huge•Harvard International Journal of…•2006

  Incluir item

• A Core Precautionary Principle

  Open Access•Stephen M Gardiner•Journal of Political Philosophy•2006

  Incluir item

• Adversarial Legalism and American Government

  Robert A Kagan•Journal of Policy Analysis and…•1991

  Incluir item

• Explaining attitudes toward genetically modified foods in the European Union

  Open Access•Stephen Ceccoli, William Hixon•International Political Science…•2012

  Incluir item

• The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media

  Maxwell E Mccombs, Maxwell Mccombs et al.•Public Opinion Quarterly•1972

  Incluir item

• Heightening Uncertainty Around Certain Science

  Open Access•Graham Dixon, Graham N Dixon et al.•Science Communication•2013

  Incluir item

• User Engagement in Public Discourse on Genetically Modified Organisms

  Open Access•Qian Xu, Nan Yu et al.•Science Communication•2018

  Incluir item