Dr Angela Cassidy: Building a public controversy: advocacy, media and politics in UK debates over bTB since 1971

Where do public controversies come from? While studies of public and media debates over science and technology are a staple research topic, there is a tendency for investigations to start when a topic becomes ‘hot’ in the mass media. In this paper, I will investigate the prehistory of such a public controversy via my research on the contemporary history of bovine TB (bTB) in the UK. While government policies to cull wild badgers (Meles meles) in order to control bTB in cattle are now highly controversial and attract widespread media coverage, debates over these policies have been ongoing since the early 1970s. However, it is only since 2010 that the badger/bTB controversy has transitioned from a series of localised controversies (geographically and/or of specialist concern) into a highly polarised and public debate.  In this paper I will trace the forty year history of this controversy and identify the key factors contributing to this transition. These include: a long-term, repeating cycle of policy > controversy > research > expert-led review > escalating disease rates; legitimacy struggles over expertise; failed expectations; and the breakdown of mechanisms for direct interaction and engagement between key actors. I will also present data on how the badger/bTB issue has been covered in mass media, illustrating the roles of specialist media and their audiences, non-governmental campaigners and politicians in driving the further polarisation and public visibility of the debate. This case study can inform wider questions of how public scientific controversies are made by identifying the factors precipitating the movement and uptake of an issue into the wider public sphere.

Dr Angela Cassidy's profile