Global Sense of Risk: Media Reporting on Scientific Studies and Potential Risk of Mobile Phones

A high sense of risk is characteristic of modern societies. During recent decades, increasing risk awareness has caused consumers to become more prudent. Consumer policy has become more cautious and governmental security and regulatory institutions function on behalf of citizens. Politically aware non-governmental organisations are ready to take up new risk issues and a vigilant media is monitoring, reporting and even amplifying modern dangers and public fears. Sophisticated risk analyses of menaces to humans are constantly being produced, and reflective individuals are eager to adapt their way of life according to the latest guidelines produced by the government, the media and science. The focus of this paper is the recent worldwide worry over the risks of the low-frequency electric and magnetic fields of mobile phones and their base stations. This study of international media reports on the safety and health issues related to mobile phones (N = 732) indicates that the content of media reports varies between Europe, Asia and NorthAmerica, and that the same research results are given different emphases in different newspapers. This paper also examines the complex reciprocal relationships subsisting between the different actors and institutions amplifying and playing down the individual and collective sense of risk. ACM Classifications: J.4, K.4.