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This study examines how online news and Twitter framed the discussion about genetically modified mosquitoes differently in response to Zika as the issue-attention cycle progressed. Results show that Twitter discussions relied on recurring frames. By contrast, online news media used a wider variety of benefit and risk frames than Twitter, which helped generate new knowledge. The issue-attention cycle did make a difference in the frame used. We observed a dramatic decline in benefit coverage in Twitter but not in online news media coverage. For Twitter, risk coverage spiked in the middle stages of the cycle. There was nearly no mention of risk at the beginning and ending stages of the cycle in Twitter coverage. Online news media presented a different pattern that benefit coverage was constantly high and risk coverage stably increased as the issue-attention cycle progressed. Implications are discussed in light of the media characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to analyze the changes in the coverage of illicit drugs by the Estonian press in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the restitution of Estonia’s independence. The article adapts Anthony Downs’ ‘issue-attention cycle,’ in which he proposes that public concern about certain issues follows a particular five-phase model. The author of this paper conducted a content analysis of 1523 press articles from 1993 to 2009. The analysis indicates that coverage of drug issues follows four of the five phases of Downs’ model, the exception being the fifth ‘post-problem’ phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certification of adherence to social and environmental standards allows companies involved in the (global) trade of commodities to dissociate themselves from negative impacts in the public eye. It can go beyond compliance with legal requirements. Certification can be an attempt to shift blame to uncertified others, but it can also contribute to resolving the underlying issues of concern. We provide a framework for a study of when, where and how certification schemes emerge and evolve, with specific attention to the degree to which underlying issues get addressed. Three strands of literature are combined in this framework (1) the issue–attention cycle as a schematic representation of public concerns shaping policy responses; (2) the management swing potential defined as the gap between best and worst current production systems and the basis for defining standards and (3) global value chains that link distant producers and consumers, and the power relations along these chains, including standards and certification. Based on literature review, we introduce a set of four propositions that inform testable specific hypotheses. We outline questions for reviews, in subsequent papers of this issue, of the experience on timber, oil palm, coffee, cacao and rubber as tropical-forest-margin commodities dominated by global trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Whither the Commission?' is a question faced by officials within the Commission, would-be architects of the EU and academic observers of the EU policy process. The Commission crisis of 1999, the rise of new actors and the increased power of existing actors (such as the EP) have brought the role of the Commission to the height of the 'issue-attention cycle'. As well as instigating a comprehensive internal reform process under the guidance of Commissioner Kinnock, the Commission has sought to tackle this issue through the development of a White Paper on European Governance. This article places the current Commission proposals on the future of European governance in historical and analytical context. As the issue of the future of the Commission progresses up and down the issue-attention cycle, the most appropriate action for the Commission, it is argued, may be to sit tight and make sure that it is well prepared with palatable proposals for the next phase of 'alarmed discovery'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]