Using a critical discourse analysis (CDA), this thesis examines how risks and food security, in relation to Genetically Modified (GM) foods, are constructed within the media context. The project analyzes news articles that appeared in two Canadian newspapers, The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star, and two British newspapers, The London Times and the Guardian, during three particular time periods between 1997 and 2005. I evaluate whether or not the selected articles contribute to the public’s understanding of science, and how journalism constructs risk and uncertainty. I also evaluate the use of expert knowledge by journalists. Using the theory of Risk Society, as proposed by sociologist Ulrich Beck, the project explores the connections between political, social, and economic issues connected to globalization. This thesis concludes that journalism in both Canada and Britain does not appear to adequately inform their citizens on matters of food security and the risks of GMOs.

Using a critical discourse analysis (CDA), this thesis examines how risks and food security, in relation to Genetically Modified (GM) foods, are constructed within the media context. The project analyzes news articles that appeared in two Canadian newspapers, The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star, and two British newspapers, The London Times and the Guardian, during three particular time periods between 1997 and 2005. I evaluate whether or not the selected articles contribute to the public’s understanding of science, and how journalism constructs risk and uncertainty. I also evaluate the use of expert knowledge by journalists. Using the theory of Risk Society, as proposed by sociologist Ulrich Beck, the project explores the connections between political, social, and economic issues connected to globalization. This thesis concludes that journalism in both Canada and Britain does not appear to adequately inform their citizens on matters of food security and the risks of GMOs.

Orientador: Reginaldo Carmello Corrêa de Moraes / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T09:02:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Martins_AlineReginaAlves_M.pdf: 1760602 bytes, checksum: 3f07652f2e5bc30bce7034d78ede205f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Com a Revolução Científica e Tecnológica (1970), a informação e o conhecimento transformam-se em fontes de maior produtividade e de desenvolvimento socioeconômico. No mundo agrário, os Organismos Geneticamente Modificados, também denominados transgênicos, representam a conformação dessa nova dinâmica tecnológica internacional. Em uma economia diretamente enraizada na produção e uso de conhecimentos, este trabalho prima pela investigação da existência de uma monopolização das técnicas transgênicas por determinadas empresas e países restringindo as possibilidades de concorrência no setor de sementes geneticamente modificadas, o que prejudicaria países menos avançados em biotecnologia agrícola. Em que medida conhecimentos e tecnologias de ponta estão organizados em fluxos globais ou estão inseridos em uma estrutura assimétrica, estabelecendo uma divisão entre os países capazes de participar dos processos de geração de novas tecnologias agrícolas e aqueles que passivamente absorvem conhecimentos advindos do exterior? Como a polarização de conhecimentos e informações estratégicos acarretaria e perpetuaria desigualdades na economia global e quais são os mecanismos jurídicos e políticos que corroborariam essa concentração? / Abstract: In the Scientific-Technical Revolution (1970), information and knowledge are transformed in sources of higher productivity and socioeconomic development. In agriculture, the genetically modified organisms represent the conformation of that new international technological dynamic. In an economy directly rooted in the production and use of knowledge, this research primarily investigates the existence of a monopoly in the field of genetically modified seeds by certain companies and countries, which would undermine less advanced countries in agricultural biotechnology. To what extent are technology and information organized into global flows or in an asymmetric structure establishing a division between countries able to participate in the process of generating new agricultural technologies and those who passively absorb knowledge coming from outside? How the polarization of strategic knowledge and information would result and perpetuate inequalities in the global economy and what legal and political mechanisms support this concentration? / Mestrado / Política Externa / Mestre em Relações Internacionais