Media Beef Coverage Focuses On Safety
DENVER, Colo. Stories
about safety accounted for S 7
percent of all consumer media
coverage of the beef industry in
fiscal year 2001, according to na
tional media monitoring data col
lected for the Cattlemen’s Beef"
Board by the National Cattle
men’s Beef Association (NCBA^,
The total number of beef in
dustry stories also increased by
more than 1,000 over year 2000.
The national media monitoring
program, funded by the beef
checkoff, covers major market
newspapers, wire services, na
tional news and business publica
tions and major network and
cable news broadcasts. Data are
compiled for the fiscal year be
ginning Oct. 1 and ending Sept.
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30. Media coverage favorability
ratings between 45 and 55 are
considered balanced, or neutral.
“Beef safety stories typically
account for around 40 percent of
total coverage'in a year, but 2001
was extraordinary,” said Chrteti
na Pope, -director of
issue reswprtfrdnd analysis, who
manages the media-monitoring
program. “In 2001, BSE was
mentioned in almost 1 out of 3
(29 percent) of all stories about
the beef industry.”
The increased number of safe
ty stories also bumped up the
total number of U.S. stories men
tioning beef issues to 7,261, an in
crease of 16 percent over the fis
cal year 2000 total of 6,255.
“The BSE outbreaks that
began in Europe
in late 2000 re-
sulted in a sub-
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stantial increase in U.S. media
coverage of that issue topic that
lasted into the spring of 2001,”
Pope said. “Ih fact, BSE coverage
was up more than 200 percent
over the previous year, with 2,093
stories that mentioned beef and
BSE compared to only 676 last
year.”
Within the heavy BSE cover
age, another topic also was fre
quently mentioned, Pope ex
plained. New variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
(nvCJD), the human disease
linked to BSE, together with
classic CJD was the sixth most
mentioned specific issue topic in
2001.
Foot and mouth disease
(FMD) also was a prominent
topic in 2001 media coverage,
Pope added. “Foot and mouth
disease didn’t even show up last
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 15,2001-A29
year,” she said. “This year, even
though U.S. coverage didn’t
begin until February, it was the
fourth leading issue topic men
tioned in 1,365 stories, account
ing for 19 percent of our total
coverage.
“The beef industry’s intense ef
forts to get accurate information
out about BSE and FMD is re
flected in the neutral media favo
rability rating of 46 for the safety
issue overall and 45 for BSE spe
cifically,” Pope said. “It could
easily have been portrayed in the
media as a highly negative food
scare. We calculated that, in the
first six months of calendar year,
2001, NCBA staff and spokesper
sons conducted about 600 media
interviews just on BSE and FMD.
In addition,” she said, “con
sumer surveys conducted during
the times of heavy media cover
age showed consumer confidence
in the safety of U.S. beef actually
increased.”
Economics was the second
leading 2001 media coverage
issue category by volume, men
tioned in 2,830 stories or 39 per
cent of the total coverage.
Foreign trade was the leading
topic in economics and the sec
ond leading topic overall with
mentions in 1,707 stories. Favora
bility for the economics category
averaged a 48 rating.
The category of Reinvent the
Chuck/Round, which includes
beef recipes and new product
news, came in third by volume
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with 1,600 story mentions and
the highest favorability rating of
62, strongly positive.
Nutrition and Health had
1,582 story mentions, fourth by
volume, and accounted for 22
percent of total coverage. The nu
trition coverage was at the upper
end of the neutral favorability
range at 55, but the topic of beef
& fat/leanness had a positive rat
ing of 59 and mentions of beef &
cholesterol were strongly positive
with a 62 favorability rating.
“The two smallest categories of
media coverage by volume are
environment and animal rights/
welfare,” Pope said. “The
amount of U.S. media coverage
on the issue of cattle and the en
vironment continues to dwindle
from its high of about 45 percent
of total coverage back in 1995 to
its current level of only 7 percent
of the total. The 480 media story
mentions of cattle and the envi
ronment were solidly neutral
with a favorability rating of 49.”
Animal rights/welfare coverage
typically is the smallest category
by volume. Pope said. “The ani
mal rights coverage also has
dwindled over the years. Back in
the early 90s, this category ac
counted for 11 or 12 percent of
total coverage and often had fa
vorability ratings at 40 and
below. In 2001,” she said, “the
474 articles mentioning cattle
and animal rights accounted for
only 7 percent of total coverage
and generated a slightly unfavor
able rating of 43.”
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