Manuela Sassi

Mass media health information: Quantitative and qualitative analysis of daily press coverage and its relation with public perceptions

OBJECTIVE This paper describes the methods followed by the Pisa University OCS for collecting, storing and analyzing all health-related articles and database contents. Moreover, an example population survey on the topic of food safety based on such analysis is shown. METHODS Articles published each day since 1999 in Italys three most popular newspapers are collected and stored in a Data Base Text; on these articles quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted. On the basis of these results as well as of epidemiological data, a questionnaire survey was carried out about sources of information, knowledge and risk perception of citizens regarding food safety. RESULTS On a total of 24,434 articles on all health topics, 18% regarded food related hazards: their evolution over time showed peaks on BSE, avian flu and dioxin. A large proportion of the people surveyed declared having changed their food habits, at least temporarily, as a consequence of media information. Most get their information on food safety mainly from television. Most respondents remembered having previously heard news on BSE, avian flu and dioxin, but did not recall having heard of listeriosis, brucellosis or typhoid fever. CONCLUSIONS Newspapers articles facing food related hazards tend to be alarming thus affecting the citizens risk perception. On the other hand people often ignore how to manage their own food safety in a practical way. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Analysis of media messages can help to evaluate and correct the negative effects that may result in wrong information.

L'archivio elettronico delle opere di Carlo Emilio Gadda

This paper, which concerns the realization of an electronic archive of the works by Carlo Emilio Gadda, was made possible following the agreement in 1994 between the Institute of Computational Linguistics (ILC) and the publisher Garzanti. The product, which has essentially didactic and research purposes, was created starting from encoded photocomposition material. The first part of the paper describes the main features of the archive, which uses the “Data Base Testuale” (DBT), a system of textual analysis. The second part is divided into two sections: the first section is related to ‘lexicographical supports’ that we have produced, at the beginning only as compilers and from 1998 also as users of the Gadda archive; the second section presents the project of CNR, carried out within the framework of the implementation of an Internet site dedicated to the works by and on Gadda. This site is a model of a ‘cultural laboratory’, whose preliminary contents are some passages taken from Gadda, publications, bibliographical data, images and links.