Anxiety is fought with proper communication
From potentially carcinogenic meat to blue mozzarella, the rush to communicate is always a bad advisor. What are the mistakes to avoid when talking about food emergencies? To the Festival of Food Journalism they discussed it Stefania Stecca, of the Department of Political Culture and Society of the University of Turin, e Bartolomeo Griglio, veterinarian of the ASL Torino 5, in a meeting moderated by Roberto Rabachino of the Italian Agribusiness Press Association.
"Anxiety, apprehension as a set of feelings caused by the imminence of a danger, even if only feared: this is the definition that the Treccani dictionary brings to our eyes, if we look for the term" alarm "," began Stefania Stecca. "We therefore understand how strong the emotional component and uncertainty are. When it is approached to food, fear grows, because it is linked to what nourishes us every day".
"Often the haste of journalists to publish does not help in-depth analysis", warns Roberto Rabachino. To explain it, Stefania Stecca cited some concrete examples, such as that of the IARC report (International Agency for Research on Cancer) concerning the risk of cancer linked to the large consumption of processed meats. "The world of information should mediate between researchers and readers - says Stecca - but often tends to replace verification with conviction. For example, the adjective" worked "has not been placed in proper relevance".
The Iarc release, written in English, often uses technical terms such as "limited evidence" and "probably carcinogenic to humans" - the teacher observed - in that case, the agency in charge of communication inserts links to sources that allow them to be explained. "But once we have obtained the data, we must make the effort to contextualize them - Stecca underlines - because in information the authoritativeness builds trust and gives us credibility".
Another difficulty that journalists encounter is the availability of third-party sources, as Bartolomeo Griglio recalls: "Often those involved in investigations tend not to speak, while some private sources tend to promote themselves." And the thousand contradictions of Italy are also not lacking in the food sector: a network of zooprophylactic institutions like no other European country, excellent and branched checks on quality and traceability of food, but, at the same time, powerful agromafie. This then gives us the measure of why the media is so interested.
di Lorenzo Montanaro with Maria Teresa Giannini e Martina Tartaglino (Futura)
