Risk and News

Risk is a “news frame” that highlights dangers, responsible parties, and likely victims. In political communications researcher Robert Entman's well-known definition, “[t]o frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation.” Almost any subject can be reported as risk news. Risk frames can be used to report news about everything from guns to tourism, technology, social security, gasoline, and immigration. Reporting on gasoline can highlight the geopolitical risks of economies that depend on limited sources of energy, or scientific breakthroughs in the development of sources of energy. Stories on international tourism can focus on potential health risks and crime, or on the fact that tourism is an industry that generates jobs and revenues for small economies. Coverage of immigration may emphasize risks that immigrants take when they illegally cross borders, or the economic and cultural benefits that a country draws from migration flows.

News about risk matters because the press is a key institution in the social construction of risk, in that it contributes to the process by which societies select and assess risks. The press plays a crucial role in making objective risks into subjective risks: just because risks exist objectively, it does not follow that societies perceive them as such. Perceived risks do not necessarily mirror those determined, for example, by statistics and research findings (e.g., morbidity and mortality due to tobacco consumption, number of homicides committed by strangers). Experts point out that risk perception is often incommensurate with actual occurrence: people disproportionately fear risks that are not as likely, as dangerous, or as widespread as they believe. The mismatch between objective risks and perceived risks has [Page 1229]important consequences, for it affects how societies prioritize risks and decide what risk-management policies should be pursued. If perceptions are wrong, then societies may focus on the wrong risks. What is the responsibility of the press in this process?

The ubiquitous nature of risk news puts in evidence broader social concerns about risks as well as interest in managing risks in Western society. During the 1970s, the combination of high-profile nuclear accidents, growing concerns about environmental threats, and social mobilization to raise awareness about possible nuclear risks prompted academic efforts to better understand the linkages between risk and society. Since then, scholars have outlined a grim scenario of a global society subjected to both natural and man-made risks that could threaten the very survival of human life.

This renewed interest in risk reflects enduring anxieties in modern societies. Once risk management becomes secularized (in that it is presumed humans can take actions to alleviate or eliminate at least some risks), humans, rather than supernatural forces, are tasked with controlling risk. Although modern societies have managed to reduce risks through technological innovations and enlightened public policies, they have also created new risks (e.g., disease transfers, global warming, pollution, traffic accidents). The parallel movements of risk reduction and creation have made risk a concern across various social sectors.

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