Remediating risk as matter–energy–information flows of avian influenza and BSE

Abstract

Nearly all risks associated with infectious diseases have potential global implications and highlight Beck’s (2007, Weltrisikogesellschaft. auf der suche nach der verlorenen sicherheit. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag) famous thesis that the risk society is always a world risk society. One central factor behind the immanently global nature of risk is the role of mediated communication. All risks are mediated in one form or another. It is for that reason logical that mediation – as a process of coming in between or extending particular associations – should play a major role in the development of theories of risk. It is from this starting point that I propose to retheorise risk in relation to practices of communication. I will reflect on two well-documented cases: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE or ‘mad cow disease’) and avian influenza (H5N1) to develop an analysis of the role of media in engendering particular risk sensibilities. By invoking Bolter and Grusin’s (1999, Remediation: understanding new media. Cambridge MA: MIT Press) concept of remediation, I will show that risks are virtual and this means that they can be endlessly reconfigured in particular techno–semiotic networks that are geared towards calibrating three attributions: matter, energy and information. It is through these recalibrations that particular systems are able to invoke specific forms of risk communication that fit distinct institutional and/or personal interests.