TY - CHAP
T1 - Nuclear stories in the news media: Filtering and altering of expert views
AU - Sarlos, Gabor
PY - 2025/2/27
Y1 - 2025/2/27
N2 - Proponents consider nuclear energy as a long-term, safe and low-cost form of clean energy production. Opponents claim that nuclear power is anything but safe and low-cost, and point out that the evaluation of its environmental impact should be based on full life cycle analysis. By adapting the Social Amplification of Risk (SARF) conceptual framework, the chapter focuses on the role of news media in formulating nuclear-related risk perceptions. The study analyses the press releases of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, in 2023 and the news media articles on nuclear energy of four leading, global media outlets from the same year, to understand the role of news media as social amplification stations in the process. The study confirms that each news media plays a dynamic role in the risk communication process through filtering and altering the original messages. The paper confirms that the level of filtering and altering is impacted by the credibility of the original disseminator of the message, however, this credibility is not considered universal. Nuclear energy risk messages tend to have strong international contexts, cannot focus on technical aspects only and often carry political and military implications.
AB - Proponents consider nuclear energy as a long-term, safe and low-cost form of clean energy production. Opponents claim that nuclear power is anything but safe and low-cost, and point out that the evaluation of its environmental impact should be based on full life cycle analysis. By adapting the Social Amplification of Risk (SARF) conceptual framework, the chapter focuses on the role of news media in formulating nuclear-related risk perceptions. The study analyses the press releases of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, in 2023 and the news media articles on nuclear energy of four leading, global media outlets from the same year, to understand the role of news media as social amplification stations in the process. The study confirms that each news media plays a dynamic role in the risk communication process through filtering and altering the original messages. The paper confirms that the level of filtering and altering is impacted by the credibility of the original disseminator of the message, however, this credibility is not considered universal. Nuclear energy risk messages tend to have strong international contexts, cannot focus on technical aspects only and often carry political and military implications.
KW - risk awareness
KW - social amplification of risk
KW - nuclear energy perception
KW - media representation
M3 - Chapter
SN - ISBN 9781032766652
T3 - Routledge Studies on Media, Communication and Politics
BT - Communicating Science, Climate Change and the Environment in Hybrid Media
A2 - Roslyng, Mette Marie
A2 - Rantasila, Anna
A2 - Jönsson, Anna Maria
PB - Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group
ER -