Food Information Environments: Risk Communication and Advertising Imagery

The imagery of any foodstuff is shaped by assumptions of what is culturally valued as food, assumptions that are also fed by marketing, expert nutritional advice and intermittent food “alarms”. This paper raises the issue of risk communication versus advertising and argues that in order to better understand consumers' response to food risk communication we should pay closer attention to the broader information environment in which the compromised foodstuffs are embedded. Any new information properly crafted in the form of “risk messages” necessarily interacts with the information that constitutes the foodstuff's environment. It is proposed that focusing on such an environment, rather than on the “content” of the risk message alone, improves understanding of how the risk message eventually triggers further selections and decisions about the compromised foodstuff. The risk communication is itself a media event and is seen as part of the food information environment rather than autonomous to it.