Content area
Full text
Aquacult Int (2017) 25:177195
DOI 10.1007/s10499-016-0021-1
Yvonne Feucht1 Katrin Zander1
Received: 3 December 2015 / Accepted: 11 May 2016 / Published online: 19 May 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
Abstract The current aquaculture methods are criticized by the public for potentially causing ecological problems and health risks for consumers. An unfavorable public perception may lead to a decline in consumption. Also the production might be affected negatively since legislation and as such approval procedures are inuenced by public perception. The aquaculture industry has to consider public reactions to their production practices in order to prosper further. One way to learn about and to understand public perception is the analysis of media coverage since media are an important source of information for the public. Thus, the media coverage of an issue reveals potential points of conict between the aquaculture sector and the public. We aimed to identify which attitude the media adopted toward aquaculture as a news issue and to determine which aspects of aquaculture were highlighted and how they were discussed. The study also focused on the presentation of recirculating systems and of organic aquaculture. Using this approach, we analyzed the media coverage of aquaculture in the most widely read German newspapers in the time period from 2008 to 2013. A mixture of qualitative and quantitative content analysis was used to examine the coverage in the Sddeutsche Zeitung, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the BILD. Our results indicate that the analyzed media primarily reported on aquaculture in a positive to neutral tone. Economic benets of aquaculture dominated the coverage, whereas potential negative aspects of aquaculture received less attention. Organic sh farming and closed recirculating systems were both presented as eco-friendly practices. The German aquaculture sector was described as being sustainable and practicing good management.
Keywords Agenda-setting Aquaculture Communication Closed recirculating
systems Farmed sh Media analysis Newspaper Organic aquaculture Public media
& Yvonne Feucht [email protected]
1 Thnen-Institute of Market Analysis, Bundesallee 50, 38116 Brunswick, Germany
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10499-016-0021-1&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10499-016-0021-1&domain=pdf
Web End = Aquaculture in the German print media
123
178 Aquacult Int (2017) 25:177195
Abbreviations
FAZ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung SZ Sddeutsche ZeitungRAS Recirculating aquaculture systems
Introduction
Aquaculture production has increased worldwide, and production practices have intensied. This development went along with ecological problems as...