Food Risk and Crisis Communication in Taiwan:

Cases of Dioxin Contamination

Mei-Ling Hsu, Professor

Department of Journalism

National Chengchi University

（徐美苓，政治大学新闻系教授）Taipei, Taiwan

International Forum on Public Relations and Advertising – Crisis Management and Integrated Strategic Communication, City Unive

rsity of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, December 5-7, 2008

Objectives of the StudyData: Partial results of un ongoing project examining dioxin-related

risk in food sponsored by the Department of Health, TaiwanPerspectives: combining risk/crisis communication and journalistic

practices =>

To examine risk communication strategies as represented in the news media across various dioxin-events in TaiwanTo uncover the manifestation and interplay of various claims and

interpretations made by the stakeholders in communicating health-related risks To propose an exploratory typology of how features of dioxin

contamination incidents can influence evolution of events as represented in the mediaTo provide suggestions of the initiatives that can be taken by public

health decision makers (e.g., DOH) to respond to future health crises effectively

Background: What Is Dioxin?

Unwanted contaminants almost exclusively produced by industrial processes, including waste incineration, chemical and pesticide manufacturing and pulp and paper bleaching More than 90% of human exposure to dioxins results from

the intake of food; the major sources of dioxin in food are dairy, beef, fish, pork, poultry, and eggs. Accumulation of dioxin in human body may cause

serious health problems, including birth defects, damage to the immune system, and cause various types of cancer.

Background: Dioxin-related Risks in Taiwan

Increasing worldwide awareness of vulnerability to environmental and health risks in the 21st century Taiwan’s per capita dioxin load volume ranked among the

top ones due to dense population and small land area.

A metaphor of ‘poison of the century’ ( 世纪之毒 ) has been used widely to refer to dioxins in Taiwanese society. Several incidents involving dioxin contamination found in

soil, river, livestock, poultry, and fish since 2005. =>Increased public anxiety and uncertainty about the safety of drinking water and meat (both domestic and imported) Challenges to Taiwanese society and government to safeg

uard food contamination of dioxins

Research Questions

What strategies have been used by various stakeholders in addressing the Taiwanese dioxin crises? What patterns can be found in the mediated risk c

ommunication of the dioxin crises? What are the mechanisms underlying the occurrence of the patterns?

Literature Review (I)

Lessons Learned from Risk and Crisis Communication Literature

Nature of Crisis Communication Approaches to Crisis Analysis

Benoit’s (1995) image restoration approach Coomb’s (1995, 1999) crisis response typology Stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984) Technical translation strategies (Stephens, Malone,

& Bailey, 2005 )

Literature Review (II)

Problems of the much promoted crisis communication strategy: meet the needs of the media =>unrealistic when taking account of the journalistic practices and constraints News media’s routine practices to seek balanced reports and to frame the event or issue into certain perspective(s) may result in intriguing patterns of representing stakeholders’ interactions in response to the crisis situation

=>Reconsidering factors of news framing and source balancing strategies

Features of Taiwanese news media Journalistic routines of source selection and balancing

Methods

A quantitative content analysis of dioxin news (N = 275)Mainstream news media in a period of 2 and half years (Jan

uary 2005 – June 2007): TVBS News, ETToday, China Times, United Daily News, Apple Daily, and Liberty Times Pretest: overall intercoder agreement=.95 Analyzed categories:

StakeholdersRisk and crisis communication message strategies

Qualitative interviews with health/environmental journalists: having years of experiences in health reporting having reported dioxin issues extensively from January 200

5 to June, 2007

Content Analysis:Stakeholders Identified in Dixon Stories

Governmental authorities Department of Health (DOH)Council of Agriculture (COA)Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA)Other state institutions

Local authoritiesMagistratesLocal health authoritiesLocal agriculture authoritiesLocal environmental

protection authoritiesOther local institutions

Legislatives/councilorsIssue experts/institutionsNon-governmental organizatio

ns (NGOs)Residents/community Proprietors

Content Analysis:Risk and Crisis Communication Message Strategies

Claims and interpretations by the stakeholders (revised from crisis communication and journalistic literature):

approvalmere explanation/clarificationdefense/rebuttal policy, compensation, and punishment announcement questioning suggestion proposing accusation victimization description other.

Name NewsMedia

Gender EducationalBackground

ReportingExperiences

Frequenciesin DioxinReporting

Date ofInterview

SC UnitedDailyNews(UDN)

Female BA in masscommunicatio

n;MA in public

health

4 years inhealth

reporting,and many otheryears in lines ofTaipei City andconsumers.

5 December 26,2007

HT China Times

(CT)

Female BA in masscommunicatio

n

9 years in health reporting

10 December 28,2007

WT LibertyTimes

(LT)

Male BA in Englishliterature, MAin journalism

3 years inhealth

reporting,and many otheryears inEnvironmentand consumerprotection

15 December 28,2007

Qualitative Interviews with Health/Environmental Journalists

Related Interview Questions

How do you view the relationship between food risk and the pubic? What do you think is the most important information the public needs to know in this regard? What angles in covering food risk are considered more newsworthy the others? In what aspects do you think that news media can assist in communicating health risks to the public? In what aspects do you think that news media have difficulty in playing such a role? What kind of information do you expect from the authorities (e.g., DOH, COA, EPA) to provide in food risk communication? What kind of relationship do you expect to have with the sources releasing health risk information? What existing problems do you perceive from the journalistic viewpoints?

Results (I)

Content analysis of dioxin newsDioxin incidents:

Dioxin contamination found in duck farms in Hsienhsi and Shenkang Townships in central county of Changhua [ 彰化县线西、伸港戴奥辛（二恶英）鸭蛋事件， N=175]Imports of pork and pig viscera from the Netherlands were suspended over a dioxin scare. The Dutch pork was found later to be contaminated by dioxin[ 荷兰进口猪肉疑因饲料受戴奥辛（二恶英）污染 ， N=35]Sheep in Bali and Linkou Townships in Taipei County were found with excessive dioxin [ 台北县八里、林口羊只遭戴奥辛（二恶英）污染案 ， N=54]“Shark liver” oil capsules from Canada were found to contain unusually high levels of dioxin [ 市售进口鱼肝油含过量戴奥辛（二恶英） ， N=11]

News Sources by Dioxin Incidents

What sources were quoted depends on:Whether the incident was local (DOH had less control)

or involved imported products (DOH had more control)

Whether the incident involved nationwide inspection (=> increased local sources)

Whether DOH was active or reactive (=> increased NGO or expert sources)

Whether DOH had concealed risk information (=> less DOH, more other sources)

Mediated Message Strategies by Stakeholders

Events involving imported products:State and local authorities’ quotes were used mostl

y as explanations and clarifications, and sometimes even as policy, compensation, and punishment announcements.

Quotes of issue experts/institutions were mainly represented to propose suggestions, followed by explanations/clarifications and questioning.

Locally oriented events:Although both state and local authorities were

quoted mostly to provide explanations/clarifications, other types of mediated strategies were present in the stories, especially when the authorities were engaged in responsibility shifting and blaming each other.

Summary

Stakeholders of the dioxin-related crises were generally quoted and represented in patterns that could facilitate the news stories to be framed in a balanced manner.

The nature of the crisis as well as actions or responses taken by the responsible agents may affect the interplay of various stakeholders in the news coverage.

Such a dynamics goes far beyond what traditional crisis communication literature has suggested about the media strategies to be employed in managing risks or crises.

Results (II)

Interviews of Journalists Journalists’ perception of food Risk coverage

Frame chosen: Events or conflicts as starting points to dig out more policy or administration-related flaws News sources: Not relying on governments as single sources

(balanced by non-government experts or organizations), but lay public not priority source consideration Refusal to be government loudspeakers vs. important channel

for risk information

Perception comparison between journalists and expert/government sources

Government’s news-related criticisms: merely cover-up of establishment’s incompetence and poor decision-making

Discussion and Suggestions

A Typology of Features of Dioxin Contamination Incidents

Suggestions (tentative):During the regular, non-crisis periods

Active in releasing health and environmental risk information State authorities to cooperate well with local authorities in fac

ing proprietors, residents, the community, and NGOs in communicating risks

During the crisis situations Be honest in releasing crisis related information To maintain well-communicated relationships with other stak

eholders and to avoid shifting of the responsibilities in order to avoid media exaggeration of the inconsistencies and conflicts

Thank you for your attention!