Monster Cows and the Doing of Modern Biotechnology in Sweden: An Intersectional Risk Analysis

Abstract

In this article, the aim is to analyse how the insemination of images of a cow is entangled with perceptions of gene technology through the ‘doing’ of risk, nature, periphery and gender in Sweden. Two types of data have been used; the 1996 Eurobarometer survey on public opinion and a corpus of articles from the Swedish daily press. 13.6% of the respondents thought about the Belgian Blue cattle in relation to gene technology. Those who associated to the ‘Belgian Blue’ were more negative to gene technology on a general level, but did not differ from the rest of the sample in their attitudes to the specific applications of gene technology. Only one media article states that Belgian Blue is genetically modified, while 13% mention that the breed has a genetic defect, and almost all of the articles are very negative to the breed. The mass media achieved its most significant effects by (re)creating meanings and frames, frames which the public participated in co creating and which were sometimes incorporated by the individual into his or her personal understanding of gene technology, in this case, the Belgian Blue as an image of gene technology.The conclusion was that terms like gene technology are so abstract that people have problems in understanding the meaning of the concepts and then turn to easily accessible images for instance in the media.