Distinguishing red and green biotechnology:: Cultivation effects of the elite press

Public debates tend to operate with distinctions, which allow comparative judgments and choices. How such distinctions fall are matters of historical and social scientific interest. In the case of biotechnology, a number of distinctions were suggested in public debates over the years. During the 1990s the red/green distinction of biotechnology came to dominate media coverage, public perceptions, and regulation across Europe. By 1999, medical biotechnology (red) was treated much more favorably than agri-food biotechnology (green). This paper assesses the cultivation effects of the press on public perception. Little evidence for a cultivation effect that is consistent across Europe is found. However, the results show a strong convergence of press and perception over time: the results specify a direct relationship between changes in quality press discourse and changes in elite perceptions in relation to the red/green distinction. The study extends the cultivation approach from television to newspapers, and from direct to indirect measures of worldviews, using cross-national and longitudinal data.