Grasping the Point of Unfathomable Complexity: The New Media Research and Risk Analysis

This paper provides a critical review of engagements between the sociology of mass media and risk research. Attention is focused upon the ways in which sociologists and experts in media/communication studies have worked to bring a more socially dynamic and culturally nuanced account of the ways in which people interpret and respond to the content of news media within the field of risk analysis. I argue that, if taken seriously, this endeavour serves more to frustrate than advance the aims and objectives of risk communication. This leads me to question the role played by sociology in the context of risk analysis and to the critical suggestion that sociological reflexivity is bound to disrupt the domain assumptions and pervading ethos of this field.