IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v62y2006i2p457-466.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Representations of mad cow disease

Author

Listed:
  • Washer, Peter

Abstract

This paper examines the reporting of the story of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and its human derivative variant Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease (vCJD) in the British newspapers. Three 'snapshots' of newspaper coverage are sampled and analysed between the period 1986 and 1996 focusing on how representations of the disease evolved over the 10-year period. Social representations theory is used to elucidate how this new disease threat was conceptualised in the newspaper reporting and how it was explained to the UK public. This paper examines who or what was said to be at risk from the new disease, and whether some individuals or groups held to blame for the diseases' putative origins, the appearance of vCJD in human beings, and its spread.

Suggested Citation

  • Washer, Peter, 2006. "Representations of mad cow disease," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 457-466, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:62:y:2006:i:2:p:457-466
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(05)00276-5
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joffe, Hélène & Haarhoff, Georgina, 2002. "Representations of far-flung illnesses: the case of Ebola in Britain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 955-969, March.
    2. Miller, David, 1999. "Risk, science and policy: definitional struggles, information management, the media and BSE," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 49(9), pages 1239-1255, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Barbara Tiozzo & Anna Pinto & Federico Neresini & Stefano Sbalchiero & Nicoletta Parise & Mirko Ruzza & Licia Ravarotto, 2019. "Food risk communication: analysis of the media coverage of food risk on Italian online daily newspapers," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(6), pages 2843-2866, November.
    2. Smith, Richard D., 2006. "Responding to global infectious disease outbreaks: Lessons from SARS on the role of risk perception, communication and management," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(12), pages 3113-3123, December.
    3. Washer, Peter & Joffe, Helene, 2006. "The "hospital superbug": Social representations of MRSA," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(8), pages 2141-2152, October.
    4. Richard Helliwell & Sarah Hartley & Warren Pearce, 2019. "NGO perspectives on the social and ethical dimensions of plant genome-editing," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(4), pages 779-791, December.
    5. Minerva Catalán‐Vázquez & Horacio Riojas‐Rodríguez & Blanca Estela Pelcastre‐Villafuerte, 2014. "Risk: For Whom? Representations of Mining Activity by Different Social Actors in the Molango Manganese District of Hidalgo, Mexico," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(1), pages 28-43, January.
    6. Ribeiro, Barbara & Hartley, Sarah & Nerlich, Brigitte & Jaspal, Rusi, 2018. "Media coverage of the Zika crisis in Brazil: The construction of a ‘war’ frame that masked social and gender inequalities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 137-144.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Branden B. Johnson, 2017. "Explaining Americans’ responses to dread epidemics: an illustration with Ebola in late 2014," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(10), pages 1338-1357, October.
    2. Irina A. Novikova & Elizaveta B. Berezina & Marianna E. Sachkova & Nikolay V. Dvoryanchikov & Alexey L. Novikov & Inna B. Bovina, 2024. "To Be Scared or Not to Be Scared: Social Representations of COVID-19 in Young People (A Cross-Cultural Study)," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, January.
    3. Wallis, Patrick & Nerlich, Brigitte, 2005. "Disease metaphors in new epidemics: the UK media framing of the 2003 SARS epidemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(11), pages 2629-2639, June.
    4. Smith, Richard D., 2006. "Responding to global infectious disease outbreaks: Lessons from SARS on the role of risk perception, communication and management," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(12), pages 3113-3123, December.
    5. Taylor, Jennifer & Murray, Michael & Lamont, Alexandra, 2017. "Talking about sunbed tanning: Social representations and identity-work," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 161-168.
    6. Yoo, Nari & Jang, Sou Hyun, 2024. "Does social empathy moderate fear-induced minority blaming during the COVID-19 pandemic?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 346(C).
    7. Kott, Anne & Limaye, Rupali J., 2016. "Delivering risk information in a dynamic information environment: Framing and authoritative voice in Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and primetime broadcast news media communications during the 2014," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 42-49.
    8. Victor Pelaez, 2005. "Science And Governance In The National Systems Of Innovation Approach," Working Papers 0010, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Department of Economics.
    9. Quah, Stella R., 2007. "Public image and governance of epidemics: Comparing HIV/AIDS and SARS," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 253-272, February.
    10. Washer, Peter & Joffe, Helene, 2006. "The "hospital superbug": Social representations of MRSA," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(8), pages 2141-2152, October.
    11. Ribeiro, Barbara & Hartley, Sarah & Nerlich, Brigitte & Jaspal, Rusi, 2018. "Media coverage of the Zika crisis in Brazil: The construction of a ‘war’ frame that masked social and gender inequalities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 137-144.
    12. Celine Morin & Arnaud Mercier & Laetitia Atlani-Duault, 2019. "Text–Image Relationships in Tweets: Shaping the Meanings of an Epidemic," Societies, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-18, January.
    13. Richard Helliwell & Sarah Hartley & Warren Pearce, 2019. "NGO perspectives on the social and ethical dimensions of plant genome-editing," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(4), pages 779-791, December.
    14. Catherine E. Althaus, 2005. "A Disciplinary Perspective on the Epistemological Status of Risk," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(3), pages 567-588, June.
    15. Mazanderani, Fadhila & Locock, Louise & Powell, John, 2012. "Being differently the same: The mediation of identity tensions in the sharing of illness experiences," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(4), pages 546-553.
    16. Eichelberger, Laura, 2007. "SARS and New York's Chinatown: The politics of risk and blame during an epidemic of fear," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(6), pages 1284-1295, September.
    17. John Eyles & Nicole Consitt, 2006. "Global Infectious Disease and Canada's Role: What Can Be Done?," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 32(3), pages 301-316, September.
    18. de-Graft Aikins, Ama, 2012. "Familiarising the unfamiliar: cognitive polyphasia, emotions and the creation of social representations," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 48049, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:62:y:2006:i:2:p:457-466. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.