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DOI: 10.1177/0963662510389977

2012 21: 705 originally published online 5 December 2010Public Understanding of ScienceStephen Bocking

context of environmental controversyMobile knowledge and the media: The movement of scientific information in the

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Corresponding author:Stephen Bocking, Environmental and Resource Studies Program, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, K9J7B8, Canada

Email: [email protected]

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ArticleP U S

Mobile knowledge and the media:The movement of scientificinformation in the context ofenvironmental controversy

Stephen Bocking

Trent University, Canada

Abstract

This paper examines the role of the news media in transnational flows of knowledge. Its focus is on salmon

aquaculture, an industry operating in Europe, Canada, and elsewhere. To examine the movement of knowledge

from Europe to Canada, a sample of 323 news stories mentioning European aquaculture was drawn from

1261 stories about aquaculture published in Canadian newspapers between 1982 and 2007. Their analysis

demonstrates the role of the media in selectively moving and shaping scientific knowledge. This role has been

influenced by numerous factors, including journalistic norms, source strategies, and the assertion of trust,

relevance and scientific credibility. This analysis corrects the common assumption in the internet era that

information flows freely: new technology has not obviated the role of social factors. The medias role in the

movement of knowledge also has implications for the geography of science, and for the status of science as

a situated practice.

Keywords

globalization of science and technology, media and science, media representations, movement of knowledge,

science communication, scientific controversies

1. Science, controversy, and the media

This article examines the role of the news media in the movement of environmental knowledge, in

the assertion of claims regarding the relevance and credibility of this knowledge, and in the con-

struction of science as a situated practice. Its point of departure is awareness of the media as a

principal means by which policy-relevant issues and information come to the attention of decision

makers, interest groups, and the general public (Corbett and Durfee, 2004; Major and Atwood,

2004; Antilla, 2005; Carvalho, 2007). This encompasses the medias important role in disseminating

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706 Public Understanding of Science 21(6)

scientific information in the context of environmental controversies, one result of which is that the

public tends to understand the science that relates to these controversies less through direct expe-

rience or past education than through the filter of journalistic language and imagery (Nelkin,

1995: 2). Many factors influence the scale and character of media coverage of science and environ-

mental controversies, including current events, competing economic priorities, newsworthiness,and perceptions of the credibility and trustworthiness of sources. The professional culture of jour-

nalism and its attendant conventions and norms are also important, including the assurance of bal-

ance through presentation of opposing views, and attention to the everyday culture of media

audiences (Peters, 1995).

Media coverage of science can also be examined in terms of how information is framed.

Frames that is, interpretative schemes that imply particular approaches to problems, their causal

relationships, and potential solutions are an essential tool for understanding how the media

define an issue (Scheufele, 1999, 2000; Nisbet et al., 2003; Antilla, 2005; Scheufele and

Lewenstein, 2005; Corbett, 2006; Carvalho, 2007; Scheufele and Tewksbury, 2007; Matthes and

Kohring, 2008). Framing an issue involves not just presenting, but explaining information: whyit is important, who might be responsible, and what might be done about it. For journalists, frames

are a means of presenting and interpreting information efficiently; for audiences, they are simi-

larly important in understanding new information and relating it to already accepted knowledge.

For example, the media have framed biotechnology as, alternatively, a means of achieving food

security or economic growth through science, as a matter demanding political and ethical reflec-

tion, or as a Pandoras Box of uncertain hazards and corporate control over agriculture (Nisbet

and Lewenstein, 2002).

How the media frame information is also relevant to understanding the presentation of science.

As researchers have noted, the media do not present merely scientific knowledge, but also ideas

regarding the practice of science (Gregory and Miller, 1998: 90). This reflects not only curiosityabout what scientists do, but concerns regarding science in its social context: skepticism regarding

the relations between science and political or economic interests; demands for guidance in evaluat-

ing the credibility and trustworthiness of science and scientists, or in understanding the meaning of

controversies between scientists; and a lack of clarity regarding scientific uncertainties such as

those encountered in relation to climate change (Zehr, 2000; Mooney, 2005; Carvalho, 2007;

Weingart, 2007; McGarity and Wagner, 2008; Michaels, 2008). One consequence has been the

emergence of an image of science as less a pathway to objective truth, than a social institution akin

to that described by historians and sociologists of science, in which scientific practice and knowl-

edge are shaped by the diverse values, interests, and ideologies of its practitioners, patrons, and

audiences in short, a view of knowledge as a contingent phenomenon.Scholars have also described how contemporary science is constructed in many sites beyond

laboratories and scientific journals. In particular, when science has consequences for actors beyond

the scientific community as in environmental controversies, for example scientists do not act

independently in specifying aspects of their practice such as choice of methods or the weighing of

uncertainties (Irwin and Wynne, 1996; Fischer, 2004). Instead, these are negotiated through social

relationships between scientists, policy actors, interest groups, and the general public. The media,

in turn, play an important role in mediating and framing these negotiations, and thus, do not merely

report on science as social and contingent, but contribute to constructing this identity (Allan, 2002).

While scholars have contributed a great deal to understanding agenda setting, framing, and the

social construction of science in the context of controversy, other important aspects of contempo-rary sciencemedia relations have received less attention. One such aspect is the representation of

science as a situated practice.

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2. Situated science and the media

In recent years there has been increasing interest in understanding science as a situated practice

that is, as a phenomenon that does not exist independently of space, but can be located, and has a

geography. Two aspects have been especially important. One is the significance of local sites of

knowledge production, encompassing the influence of political and social contexts, institutions,

disciplines, and local environments (Shapin, 1998; Barnes, 2004; Kohler, 2006). A second has been

how local knowledge gains the capacity to travel beyond the site of its production, so that it may

be considered of general, even universal, authority. As several scholars have explained, this author-

ity must be asserted, not just assumed. Study of the movement of knowledge, and of the contested

and ambiguous boundaries between global and local knowledge, has encompassed political and

economic structures, such as the relations between colonies and centers of empire, and the role of

international conservation organizations in local environments (Kirsch, 2000; Livingstone, 2003;

Jasanoff and Martello, 2004; Powell, 2007; Anderson and Adams, 2008).

The political and economic implications of science as a situated practice have also attracted

attention, motivated by awareness that accompanying the status of sites as centers of knowledge

production is the potential for extension of these centers social and conceptual control over local

places. The relations between science and control have been critically examined in a variety of

contexts: environmental justice and the geographies of race, poverty, and hazards; imposition of

local conceptions of nature (such as that of wilderness) that become defined as universal; and

redefinition of global issues such as climate change in terms of a specific authoritative local per-

spective (Guha, 1997; Jamieson, 2001; Lewis, 2007). In a less critical vein, science policy analysts

have applied ideas of situated science to economic innovation, examining the geography of scien-

tific practice and application, with notions of research clusters (often defined in terms of an eco-

nomic sector rather than a scientific discipline) displacing assumptions of an homogeneouslandscape of scientific activity (Niosi, 2005).

The concepts of situated science and its constructed capacity to be mobile imply a research

agenda, with several questions specific to understanding science and the media. One is the role of

the media in mediating the relations between science and place, through their portrayals of the

links between knowledge and local circumstances. A second relates to the movement of knowledge

through the media: through displacement of individuals or texts, the formation of networks, or by

other means. A third question relates to the contestation in the context of controversy of the capac-

ity of knowledge to be mobile, expressed in terms of the role of the media in shaping perceptions

of the credibility of knowledge beyond the context of its formation, and of the potential for conflict

between mobile knowledge and local conditions and forms of knowledge.The implications for the news media of globalization, including the role of communication tech-

nologies, have been an active area of research (Campbell, 2004; Flew, 2007). These studies have

drawn to some extent on the work of globalization scholars such as Arjun Appadurai and Saskia

Sassen, who have emphasized the deterritorialization of proximity, undermining the notion of clearly

defined spatial hierarchies such as local, national, and global. Instead, multiple, often overlapping

spatialities, defined in terms of the flows of, for example, capital, information, or people, together

define the diverse and sometimes unexpected proximities that link geographically disparate sites.

This perspective acknowledges the importance of global flows, while respecting the local circum-

stances that shape how these are expressed and experienced (Appadurai, 1996; Sassen, 2000).

However, and not withstanding these studies of the implications of globalization, there havebeen few studies of the media in terms of situated science, the mobility of information, and multi-

ple spatialities. Indeed, with the exception of the role of geographic proximity in evaluations of



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newsworthiness (that is, the effort to find local angles in national or international stories, and the

tendency to weigh the importance of events in terms of their proximity), media studies have tended

to neglect geographical dimensions of scientific knowledge and practice (Priest, 2001; Grke and

Ruhrmann, 2003; Sachsman et al., 2004). Yet, given the role of the media in constructing scientific

knowledge and practice, it can be hypothesized that the media also contribute to the formation ofscience as a situated practice, and to the assertion of its capacity to be mobile, with this capacity

linked to evaluations of trustworthiness and credibility. Opportunities for evaluating this hypothe-

sis are provided by scientific activities and related controversies that are themselves situated in

specific places, with the relevance and credibility of evidence from elsewhere a matter of debate.

These conditions are fulfilled by recent controversies relating to salmon aquaculture: an industry

and associated scientific activity that are located in specific places, and yet also form international

networks of knowledge and practice.

3. Geographies of salmon aquaculture

Salmon aquaculture the raising of salmon in enclosed net-pens, also known as salmon farming

has emerged in recent years as a significant coastal industry. First established in Norway in the

early 1970s, it is now also practiced in Chile, Scotland, Ireland, and British Columbia, Canada (the

focus of this study), with smaller initiatives under way in New Brunswick, Maine, and Washington

State. Since 1999 global production of farmed salmon has exceeded that of the conventional

salmon fishery (Eagle et al., 2004). In British Columbia the industry has grown rapidly since the

late 1980s (see Table 1).

The industry has also generated considerable controversy. In British Columbia the provincial

government and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans have devoted political, eco-

nomic, and intellectual capital to encouraging its growth; industry associations and aquaculturecompanies themselves actively promote it. Salmon aquaculture has also generated considerable

opposition among environmental groups, salmon fishers, and in many coastal communities

(Schreiber, 2003; Hume et al., 2004; Naylor and Burke, 2005; Robson, 2006). Their concerns

stem from a variety of environmental issues: the release of contaminants, the ecological impacts

of escaped salmon, and the role of farms in encouraging the spread of sea lice a parasite that

affects both farmed and wild salmon (Gardner and Peterson, 2003; Naylor et al., 2003; Hites

et al., 2004; Weir and Grant, 2005). Critics have also raised more general concerns regarding the

industrys social and cultural implications concerns linked to the iconic status of salmon in

coastal identity (Schreiber, 2002).

The spatial dimensions of this industry are complex and continue to evolve. International invest-ment and ownership have become increasingly significant. While the industry in British Columbia

was in part initiated by fishers and other local actors, currently four multinational corporations,

most headquartered in Norway, own 80 percent of the roughly 100 farms in the province. These

corporations also endeavor to present themselves as local businesses. Complex spatial dimen-

sions are also exemplified by the role of the global salmon market in determining the local viability

of aquaculture, even as it demands a standardized product that eschews local variation. Farmed

salmon also compete in the marketplace with a wild salmon fishery that identifies itself closely

with place. International flows of biological material: breeding stock of Atlantic salmon (now the

dominant species raised in British Columbia, but characterized by many as an exotic invasive spe-

cies), fish feed (much of which is derived from fish caught elsewhere in the world), and the productitself, add their own complexities to these spatial dimensions.



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Bocking 709

Another international dimension of salmon aquaculture has been a scientific research effort

pursuing both technical innovations and a better understanding of the industrys environmental and

health implications. Through this effort, scientific knowledge of aquaculture has acquired its own

geography. For example, aspects of the environmental implications of aquaculture about which a

firm consensus has been achieved in Europe, such as the implications of sea lice, have been simul-taneously the focus of active research and controversy in Canada (Mills, 2003; Krkosek et al.,

2007). These and other aspects of the geography of aquaculture knowledge have created conditions

in which the relevance and credibility of information from elsewhere could be contested.

Overall, therefore, questions of place, space, and the movement of knowledge have been

endemic in salmon aquaculture, with science heavily implicated in these questions. It can be

hypothesized, given the publics lack of direct experience with aquaculture outside the local

region, that the media would play an important role in framing these questions and in defining

the relevance and credibility of information from elsewhere. This is particularly likely in

British Columbia, where aquaculture (and accompanying controversies) have received ample

media coverage, with contested scientific information regarding the environmental implica-tions of aquaculture forming a major element of this coverage. Various parties have sought to

ensure that this coverage presents the industry in ways consistent with their own values and

interests. These efforts have interacted with other factors that shape media coverage, including

external events, the political and ideological environment, media views regarding the news-

worthiness of an issue and its framing, and perceptions of the geography of the industry and

of its knowledge base.

4. Scope of the study

This analysis will focus on several research questions. Together they address aspects of the com-munication of scientific and other types of information by the media in the context of salmon

aquaculture controversies in British Columbia. One is the role of the media in the movement of

information in this case, from European sites of salmon aquaculture to Canada. This implies two

subsidiary areas of inquiry: the evaluation and representation by the media of the relevance of

European information to local aquaculture issues in Canada; and the means and formats by which

information is conveyed by the media from Europe to Canada. A second aspect is the relation

between this movement of information and the role of the media in defining and framing the public

agenda regarding aquaculture. A third is the role of the media in the construction of the situated

nature of aquaculture science and the geographic dimensions of aquaculture.

The study begins with a quantitative analysis designed to identify temporal patterns in mentionsof European salmon aquaculture by the Canadian media. This analysis examines both scientific

and other forms of information, and so provides necessary context for examining the movement of

scientific information from Europe to Canada. The hypothesis is that coverage in the Canadian

media of European salmon aquaculture corresponds, at least in part, to its perceived relevance to

the development of the domestic aquaculture industry and associated controversies. Accordingly,

the following question is posed:

Research Question 1: How do temporal patterns in Canadian media attention to European

salmon aquaculture relate to the domestic development of the aquaculture industry and related

controversies? This question will be examined in relation to the timeline summarizing salientaspects of the history of salmon aquaculture in British Columbia (Table 1).



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It is also of interest to consider not just what, but howknowledge travels between Europe and

Canada that is, the mechanisms by which information is transferred between these locations.

Much has been made of the role of the internet in global communications. However, effective com-

munication is not just a matter of technology, but depends on social factors such as evaluations of

relevance, credibility, and trust. This implies the continuing importance of mediators, such as themedia. The following questions address this argument:

Research Question 2: By what means do the media transport information relating to salmon

aquaculture between Europe and Canada?

Research Question 3: How can this transport of information be understood in terms of media

conventions regarding the formation of relationships of trust and credibility?

Having considered how European knowledge is conveyed to Canadian audiences, we shift our

attention to the framing of this knowledge in relation to the local context. Accordingly, an addi-

tional research question concerns the themes and frames employed by the media to explain andjustify links between aquaculture in Europe and in British Columbia:

Research Question 4: How have the media framed for Canadian audiences their coverage of

the environmental dimensions of European aquaculture?

Through attention to these research questions, it will be demonstrated that the movement of

scientific knowledge is not simply the inevitable consequence of global networks of communica-

tion, but an actively constructed phenomenon, shaped by media practices and conventions, and by

the interests that seek to use this knowledge in pursuit of their goals. In this way the media contrib-

ute to the construction of science as a situated practice, taking place at local sites of knowledgeproduction, communication, and application.

5. Methods

These research questions will be examined through quantitative and qualitative analysis of

texts from Canadian newspapers from 1982 to 2007. Data collection and analysis were con-

ducted in several stages. First, a collection of media articles on salmon aquaculture was

assembled using several Canadian databases of newspapers and magazines. Databases were

searched for records created between 1982 and 2007. The choice of 1982 as the start point was

in response to two considerations: coverage provided by these databases (Canadian Newsstand,1977+; Alt-Press Watch, 1970+; CBCA Current Events, 1982+), and knowledge of the history

of the industry. Articles had to contain the search term salmon, and at least one of science,

aquaculture, or salmon farming. This generated a collection of 2429 media texts. These

were then logged in Zotero, an online citation and bibliographic tool that operates within the

Firefox internet browser (www.zotero.org). Zotero captured citation/bibliographic informa-

tion and the full text of each article. The database thus became available for full-text searching

and cross-referencing. Finally, all texts logged in Zotero were reviewed manually, and texts

lacking mention of aquaculture were removed. This generated a database of 1261 texts, which

became the basis for analysis.

In the second stage, a subset of this database was constructed, composed of all media texts thatcontained a mention of salmon aquaculture in Europe. The database was searched using the search



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In the third stage of data collection and analysis, the primary unit of analysis was the individual

text. Each text was carefully examined to identify inductively specific discursive strategies and

language relating to the following aspects: mentions of knowledge, experience and opinions

regarding links or parallels between salmon aquaculture in Europe and in British Columbia; the

assertion or denial of the relevance and/or credibility of these mentions; and the means by whichinformation was communicated between Europe and Canada (including citation of scientific litera-

ture, direct testimony of individuals, or other means). Identifying these aspects, and thus address-

ing how problems, their causal relations, and their implications are defined, provided a basis for

identifying elements of the frames employed in interpreting this information, and thus for opera-

tionalizing the concept of media framing (Matthes and Kohring, 2008). Data from these analyses

were tabulated to serve as a basis for both qualitative and quantitative conclusions. Finally, these

data were examined in relation to the broader context of the aquaculture issue: the evolution of the

industry, the events and controversies that have constituted its history, and the economic, environ-

mental, social and cultural priorities that have shaped its development.

6. Results and discussion

Patterns in Canadian coverage of European aquaculture

The first research question addressed temporal patterns in Canadian media attention to European

salmon aquaculture, and their relation to the development of aquaculture and related controversies.

This was examined, in part, through quantitative analysis. Figure 1 indicates mentions, by year, of

European aquaculture in the Canadian media, in terms of both numbers of articles and as a percentage

of all articles that mention aquaculture. These data provide a basis for three observations: attention

to European aquaculture has been episodic; over time this attention has increased in terms of abso-

lute number of articles; it has, however, decreased relative to total media attention to aquaculture.

These observations are consistent with patterns of coverage commonly seen in the media, in which

attention to an issue is rarely distributed equally across time, but instead is influenced by a variety

of shifting factors, including external events, the actions of news sources, and media evaluations of

newsworthiness (Nisbet and Lewenstein, 2002).

It can be also hypothesized that these patterns of attention to European salmon aquaculture

reflect local factors, including episodes of heightened interest or concern in Canada regarding

aquaculture, the efforts of actors to place the issue on the public agenda, and the decreased impor-

tance of European information as a result of greater availability of locally generated scientific

results. More generally, these patterns may be the consequence of shifts in how aquaculture has

been defined: as primarily an administrative or managerial issue under the purview of regulatory

agencies; or as a political issue that involves a wider range of actors as occurs when the capacity

or authority of administrative agencies has been placed in doubt (Paehlke and Torgerson, 2005).

Figure 2 provides some insight into these patterns. It indicates the evolving frequency of men-

tions in the Canadian media of economic and environmental dimensions of European aquaculture.

Until the early 1990s the economic dimensions of the European industry generally dominated

coverage; by the late 1990s, the environmental dimensions had begun to receive more attention.

Examining this shift in relation to the history of the industry in British Columbia (see timeline,

Table 1), it can be seen how it corresponds, first, to the growth of the industry during the 1980s, in

part as a result of European investment; and subsequently, to controversies regarding its potential

environmental impacts and conflicts with other coastal resource users that had begun to emerge by

the late 1980s (Keller and Leslie, 1996). These shifts in media attention have also paralleled the

redefinition of aquaculture itself as not merely an administrative, but a political matter, with a



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Bocking 713

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006

Totalmentions

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Percentage

Articles that mention Europe

Percentage of all aquaculture articles

Linear (Percentage of all aquaculture

articles)

Linear (Articles that mention Europe)

Figure 1. European aquaculture in Canadian news media.

0

5

10

15

20

25

1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006

Totalmentions

Economic mentions

Environmental mentions

Figure 2. Mentions of economic and/or environmental dimensions of European aquaculture in Canadiannews media.



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wider range of interests seeking to place these environmental impacts and conflicts on the public

agenda (Robson, 2006).

The hypothesis that there are links between the history of aquaculture in Canada and mentions

in the Canadian media of European aquaculture can also be examined in terms of patterns in dis-

cussion of specific environmental aspects of the European industry. Three such aspects have beenmost prominent: the occurrence of infectious diseases, such as furunculosis, in farmed salmon; the

potential genetic or ecological impacts of Atlantic salmon in the Pacific coast environment; and the

presence of sea lice on farmed salmon, with the potential for their transfer to wild salmon. As

Figure 3 indicates, mention of disease in the 1980s and 1990s, and of Atlantic salmon (particularly

in the late 1990s), was displaced after 2002 by numerous mentions of sea lice in coverage of

European aquaculture (note that mentions of specific issues in Figure 3 may together exceed total

articles because many articles mention more than one issue). When these patterns are examined in

relation to the timeline (Table 1), three observations can be made. First, coverage of European

aquaculture in the Canadian media can be related to shifts in the prevalence of some concerns in

British Columbia: from disease in the mid-1990s, to a preoccupation in the late 1990s with theconsequences of escaped Atlantic salmon; and then a strong focus on the implications of sea lice

(Gross, 1998; Krkosek et al., 2007). Second, some environmental issues of concern in British

Columbia were not evident in this coverage, particularly local environmental impacts (such as

organic waste near aquaculture facilities, and impacts on marine mammals). Finally, this coverage

has tended to follow, rather than precede, local attention to issues. In other words, European infor-

mation has been considered newsworthy only after analogous concerns had emerged in Canada. As

the media data and the timeline together suggest, this pattern was especially evident with respect

to sea lice from salmon farms parasitizing wild salmon: while European scientists had by the early

1990s identified this as a concern, their conclusions only began to appear in the Canadian media

once it had become a local issue in British Columbia (Table 1). Overall, these observations

0

5

10

15

20

25

1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007

Totalme

ntions

Atlantic salmon

Lice

Disease

Figure 3. Mentions of specific environmental concerns in references to European aquaculture in Canadiannews media.



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of European aquaculture. It is evident, for example, in narratives of visits by journalists to regions

of aquaculture activity within Europe; in discussions with prominent European fisheries experts,

such as Patrick Gargan, a senior scientist with Irelands Central Fisheries Board; and in coverage

of Canadians protesting at the Norwegian headquarters of aquaculture companies active in British

Columbia. Such efforts to personalize information by, for example, interviewing or profiling thework of individual scientists are a common feature of science journalism generally (Bennett,

2002; Boykoff and Boykoff, 2007). Overall, these constructed events and efforts to personalize the

issue exemplify how the mechanisms of information transfer are shaped by media conventions that

rely on face-to-face information sharing to build trust and credibility.

A third aspect of these source-generated strategies of media coverage is that they exemplify the

significant role of non-official actors in instigating the movement of information. These actors

have included environmentalists, salmon farmers, fishermen and Aboriginal representatives. As

other scholars have noted, coverage of science typically favors official sources, including govern-

ment, industry, and scientists; however, this pattern of sourcing can be expected to shift in times of

political contestation, with an accompanying greater possibility of expanding the public agenda(Nisbet et al., 2003: 47). This role of other social actors, including environmental interests, in com-

municating information from elsewhere is also a reflection of the more general observation that

when the legitimacy of authoritative sources is undermined, other social actors are better able to

assume the authority of expertise in the media (Jasanoff, 1997). This case study extends this obser-

vation, by identifying the importance of non-official sources in expanding the geographic area

from which information that is considered relevant can be drawn.

The importance of non-official sources also relates to the implications in this context of two

potentially conflicting journalistic norms and practices: the assertion of objectivity, and the selec-

tion of sources that conform to the political stance of the journalist or his/her employer. On the

one hand, the importance placed on objectivity typically encourages journalists to seek balanceby obtaining opposing views (Nisbet and Lewenstein, 2002; Boykoff and Boykoff, 2007). In the

case of information from elsewhere (for example, reports on the consequences of aquaculture in

Norway that are presented in the Canadian media), this norm has expressed itself through presen-

tation of opposing views regarding the relevance and credibility of that information. Those who

contest claims made on the basis of knowledge from elsewhere often do so by casting doubt on

this knowledge, arguing that it has been obtained in conditions unlike (in environmental, regula-

tory, or other terms) those found in British Columbia. However, the movement of information

from Europe to Canada also frequently exhibits the phenomenon of the opportune witness

(Hagen, 1993): that is, a preference for sources that are consistent with the stance either in favor,

or wary of salmon aquaculture of the journalist or newspaper. In media coverage of aquaculturethe use of opportune witnesses has been most evident in efforts to personalize the issue, and also

in efforts to construct stories.

Another strategy for conveying information regarding aquaculture has been the construction of

stories. The most effective such stories both have been compelling and contain a larger message.

One such story, repeated many times, and invoked in the service of opposing arguments, was

derived from efforts in the 1980s to control outbreaks of the Gyrodactylusparasite in Norwegian

rivers by eliminating their salmon hosts (Johnsen and Jensen, 1991). Those opposed to aquacul-

ture in Canada have often asserted that in Norway, by one account, millions of salmon have been

destroyed and entire rivers have been sterilized in an attempt to prevent the spread of [Infectious

Salmon Anemia] and other diseases (Kevin Burke, Escaped Atlantic Salmon are ecology night-mare, Victoria Times-Colonist, March 29, 1999). In contrast, those seeking to defend aquaculture

have employed this narrative to make a very different point. For example, Marcel Gijssen, writing



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Bocking 717

immediately after Burke, condemned what he described as the false claims that salmon farms

have caused rivers to be sterilized because of salmon-farming-related diseases. The fact is that

the only rivers that have been sterilized were those in Norway damaged by horrendous wild-

stock-enhancement practices (Hype on salmon farms, Victoria Times-Colonist, April 10,

1999). For partisans of either view, this narrative provided an effective means of rendering com-prehensible otherwise complex arguments regarding the ecological implications of aquaculture,

while adhering to media conventions regarding the heuristic value of drama and storytelling. As

studies of risk communication have indicated, such devices, serving as cognitive shortcuts, can

influence how audiences think about the risks and benefits of particular technologies (Allan,

2002; Nisbet et al., 2003).

These communication strategies: visits, personalization, reliance on non-official actors, and

storytelling have sometimes been combined within a single media text to assert the relevance and

credibility of information from elsewhere. A complex and compelling example is provided by

accounts of the work of Alexandra Morton, an independent researcher and the most prominent

opponent of salmon aquaculture in British Columbia. As reported by environmental journalistMark Hume, a neighbor and owner of a fishing lodge had in 2001 been the first to alert Morton to

the potential consequences of sea lice for salmon (Mark Hume, Biologists research hooks DFO

but is it too late?, The Globe and Mail, April 4, 2005). Some of the guests at the lodge were from

Scotland, and, by Humes account, were shocked to see salmon farms in British Columbia, asking:

Do you have the sea lice scourge yet? Noting dead salmon fry, these guests also suggested that

British Columbia was experiencing the same impacts of sea lice on salmon as had been seen in

devastated wild trout and salmon stocks in Scotland and Norway. Biologists in Alaska and Norway,

Hume noted, corroborated this conclusion, implicating salmon farms as a cause of the sea lice

Morton was finding on wild salmon. Humes account thus combined aspects of a visit (but, revers-

ing the more common pattern, of Europeans to British Columbia), personalization (including theuse of supportive opportune witnesses), and storytelling, to reinforce the relevance of the European

experience to Canadian concerns, and the credibility of those asserting this relevance.

The roles played by these communication strategies demonstrate that the transfer of knowledge

needs to be understood in terms of the conventions that govern how the media present information.

These conventions address the assertion of relevance, credibility, and trust, resulting in the use of

strategies of visits (and their construction as newsworthy events), personalization, reliance on non-

official actors, and storytelling. In contrast, direct reporting of scientific literature has been a less

significant, and relatively recent, development. These strategies reflect the outcome of negotiations

between sources and journalists during the constructing of news dramas, with these negotiations

shaped by the at times divergent requirements of the professional cultures of scientists and of jour-nalists (Peters, 1995), and by the specific context of the transfer of information between sites of

knowledge production and consumption.

Agendas and frames in coverage of European aquaculture

As was suggested above, the representation by the media of information from elsewhere is also

shaped by conventions regarding agenda setting and the use of frames as devices to construct

meaning. This has been made amply evident in the course of salmon aquaculture controversies. To

address the fourth research question concerning how the media framed for Canadian audiences

their coverage of the environmental dimensions of European aquaculture the focus of analysisshifts to the themes and frames deployed in discussions of aquaculture. These assert, first, the rel-

evance of European aquaculture to the Canadian context; and second, supportive or critical



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perspectives on the industry, its prospects, and its consequences, thereby serving to either support

or challenge government policies towards the industry.

A careful reading of the 323 articles that included some mention of European aquaculture pro-

vided the basis for deriving inductively four sets of themes employed to assert the relevance of this

information to Canadian readers (see Table 2). Themes relating to the economic and environmentaldimensions of the industry are especially important. Themes relating to material and informational

ties between European and Canadian salmon farming have a lesser but still significant presence. As

the table also indicates (and as will be discussed below), these themes can also serve to organize

diverse frames that have been applied to aquaculture information.

These themes provide the basis for arguments as to why Canadian readers should care about

salmon aquaculture in Europe. This may be, for example, because of the economic ties between

Canadian salmon farms and their Norwegian owners; or because European and Canadian salmon

farms are situated within similar marine environments; or because of the technical advice that

flows back and forth between Canada and Europe. Collectively, these themes, combining finance,

information, and materials, epitomize the hybrid character of environmental flows a phenomenonof increasing interest to social scientists (Spaargaren et al., 2006). They also demonstrate how the

flow of scientific information cannot be understood in isolation from other flows, such as eco-

nomic investment, or the movement of biological materials.

The international dimension has played a prominent role in the framing of scientific information

regarding the environmental aspects of aquaculture. One such frame has depicted European experi-

ence with aquaculture as a cautionary lesson for British Columbia. For example, an October 1,

1994 article in the Victoria Times-Colonistexplained that There have been huge problems with

fish farms in countries such as Norway, Ireland and Chile. In many cases, the same international

companies are now operating in Canada with few controls (Judith Lavoie, Environmentalists

fear more salmon farms after moratorium ends). Presenting a similar perspective, but reinforcedby personal and on-site testimony, a December 20, 2007 article by Stephen Hume, a prominent

journalist for the Vancouver Sun, reported on a recent visit to Ireland by quoting an Irish biologist:

Norway had some of the best rivers in the world for the production of massive salmon they are

just gone Why couldnt we learn from that? Why cant you learn from us? (Stephen Hume,

B.C. wild salmon in danger of extinction). As with economic frames, this environmental frame

could also be employed to urge a policy response. An August 12, 2004 article in theNational Post

Table 2.Themes justifying relevance of European aquaculture to Canadian audiences.

Economic themes: Success of European aquaculture indicating potential of aquaculture in Canada Competitive position of Canadian farmed salmon in the international marketplace Flows of international investment in aquaculture between Europe and CanadaEnvironmental themes: Environmental problems in European salmon farms as indicators of potential problems in Canadian farms Ecological similarities between European and Canadian marine environments and aquaculture Concerns regarding the presence of Atlantic salmon in BC waters Status of farmed salmon as a global environmental issueMaterial themes: Deliberate transfer of Atlantic salmon eggs from Europe to British Columbia Inadvertent movement of fish diseases from Europe to British ColumbiaInformation themes: Flows of technical innovation and advice between Europe and British Columbia



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Bocking 719

exhibited this approach: Governments cant plead ignorance: Years ago, a Canadian delegation

traveled to Norway, Scotland and Ireland and returned with a report on the devastation caused by

the open net fish farms (Bill Cranmer, Fish farms are damaging B.C. waters).

A second environmental frame that has served to reinforce this expression of concern empha-

sizes scientists arguments regarding the status of wild (that is, non-farmed) salmon as an essen-tial and intrinsic element of coastal economies, cultures, and ecosystems. Using evidence of the

place of salmon in coastal ecosystems (including their role in transporting nutrients from the ocean

to coastal forests) and the historic significance of salmon to coastal indigenous cultures and the

fishing economy, some writers have emphasized the consequences of damaging wild salmon stocks

by citing evidence from Europe that aquaculture may damage these stocks.

Interestingly, the media record presents few instances of drawing on international experience to

contest scientific claims of environmental hazards posed by aquaculture. Instead, those supportive

of the industry have more often framed their presentations in terms of the economic dimensions of

salmon aquaculture, including the opportunities and pressures implied by a global market for fish

and for investment. For example, Norways importance as a model of industry development and asource of investment is evident in an article from an early phase of rapid growth in the industry. In

a March 9, 1985 article in theFinancial Post, it was noted that the most apparent reason for the

change in heart [towards salmon farming] is the overwhelming success of salmon farms in Norway

and Scotland (Jack Danylchuk, Support in B.C.: Tide turns for salmon farmers). Thus, the inter-

national dimension fulfilled an essential role in this positive framing of the industry as an economic

opportunity for British Columbia.

However, the international dimension of aquaculture could also be enlisted to support a more

negative view of the industrys economic prospects. For example, a September 4, 1989 article

noted that Farmed salmon prices have been depressed worldwide this summer [due to] rapid

production increases in farmed salmon, especially in Norway (John Schreiner, Salmon farmerssay federal report is too optimistic,Financial Post). This negative framing was also sometimes

employed in efforts to advocate domestic policy, including more supportive regulatory or subsidy

programs, by presenting these as necessary to maintain a competitive industry.

Overall, it can be argued that the international dimensions of aquaculture have served as a

resource in suggesting and reinforcing specific frames that have been applied to information

regarding aquaculture. Through these frames this information is presented not only efficiently, but

in ways implying particular conclusions, including potential policy agendas. They have also

implied a loosening of the ties between knowledge and local geography that is, a deterritorializing

of proximity.

7. Conclusions

Studies of the news media and science have generally left unexamined the geographical dimensions

of scientific knowledge, and the nature of science as a situated practice. This paper has sought to

redress this neglect. It has done so by demonstrating, first, that the media have played a substan-

tial role in communicating information between the locations in which salmon aquaculture is

practiced. But just as the media do not present a comprehensive and objective portrayal of events

and other phenomena (reflecting the selectivity and shaping of information inherent in framing,

the exercise of journalistic conventions, and other factors), neither do they simply convey infor-

mation from one site to another. Instead, as this paper has argued, the movement of knowledge isan actively constructed phenomenon, shaped by efforts to assert the relevance of information, by



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journalistic conventions that relate to the selection and presentation of information, by the

strategies employed by sources of information, and by aspects of the local context, including

the development of the industry and related controversies. The constructed nature of flows of

information is also evident in how information is transported: predominately through direct

contact (effected by personal visits), and presented in the form of stories or other devices thatrespect media conventions. The role of several themes and associated frames in asserting the

local relevance of information from elsewhere provides further demonstration of this con-

structed nature of information flows.

These conclusions provide a corrective to the common assumption in an era of instantaneous

electronic communication that information flows freely and unmediated across oceans and conti-

nents. During the time period examined, the role of the internet in determining what information

would be communicated, and how, has been secondary to that played by social mechanisms of infor-

mation movement. Similarly, the image of a common global pool of scientific knowledge, contrib-

uted to by researchers at a multitude of sites, and drawn upon by an even more diffuse and widely

distributed array of users, obscures the importance of these mechanisms. Instead, the media play arole in constructing science as a situated practice, by helping to define the character of, and interac-

tions between, local sites of knowledge production and application. Through the media, diverse inter-

ests seek to define the relations between local scientific observations and those made elsewhere in

ways that are consistent with how these interests position themselves within local debates and contro-

versies. This conclusion can provide the basis for a richer understanding of the relations between the

media and the geography of knowledge, that extends beyond the common (but simplistic) assumption

that the importance of information is weighted merely in relation to its proximity to the audience.

The spatial dimensions of aquaculture from local environments to transnational flows of

knowledge and investment make this industry particularly suited to the study of the media and

the situated nature of scientific knowledge. Aquaculture also presents an opportunity to considerthe practical implications of these conclusions for managing the industry and protecting salmon

populations. While decisions should obviously be based on the best scientific knowledge, the

medias role in shaping the movement of information can result in potentially useful knowledge

from elsewhere not always being immediately available. A clear example is the decade-long

delay between European scientists identification, in the early 1990s, of a link between sea lice

and salmon farms, and this information becoming widely known in British Columbia.

These conclusions also imply opportunities for further study. One aspect that would repay atten-

tion is the strategies of information transfer evident in communication and advocacy by partici-

pants in controversies (as seen, for example, on the web sites of industry, environmental

organizations, and other interest groups involved in aquaculture). The construction of geographiesof knowledge by scientists themselves, as evidenced by their citation strategies, also merits further

study. Also promising, particularly in terms of opportunities for interdisciplinary study, are ques-

tions regarding the role of the media and of representations of situated science in the context of the

dynamic and fluid identities of particular places and spaces a matter of increasing interest to criti-

cal geographers (Harvey, 1993). Finally, comparison between the flows of knowledge relating to

aquaculture, and an industry that is less tied to local environmental and social contexts, would

illuminate the importance of these contexts to the movement of knowledge.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

of Canada (410-2007-0520). I thank Will Knight for his research assistance, and the anonymous

reviewers and editor for their thoughtful comments and advice.



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Author Biography

Stephen Bockingis Professor of environmental history and policy, and Chair of the Environmentaland Resource Science/Studies Program, Trent University. His research interests include the inter-

face between science and environmental policy, and the history of environmental science. Current

projects include a study of the transnational science and politics of salmon aquaculture, as well as

studies of the science and politics of biodiversity conservation, and of the history of Arctic envi-

ronmental research. His publications includeEcologists and Environmental Politics: A History of

Contemporary Ecology(Yale University Press, 1997), andNatures Experts: Science, Politics, and

the Environment(Rutgers University Press, 2004).

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