The risk perception of journalists is an essential factor to better understand the process of communicating risk information. Journalists construct reality. The study, which focuses on the journalistic perception of food risks and the assessment of public risk perception, is based on a quantitative survey. The data obtained were presented descriptively and evaluated in the context of social statistical characteristics, as well as presented in the form of a risk matrix. The results, which are to be seen as tendencies in the risk perception of journalists, are to form a basis for further (agenda-setting) investigations. It has been shown that hazards such as contaminants in meat or pesticide residues on plant foods are considered to be major hazards, which is also consistent with media coverage in recent years. Thus, it is mainly the physical-chemical hazard groups that are considered threatening, while nutritional errors, for example, are given less importance. In connection with the research sources preferred by the journalists, the tendency has emerged that especially those who include consumer protection information in their reporting consider physical-chemical hazards and new technologies to be relevant. The analysis by socio-statistical characteristics revealed a weakly significant difference in terms of a higher level of concern about physical-chemical hazards on the part of women, while men showed a slightly higher level of concern about nutritional errors

C. EISNER, U. ALDRIAN, L. STADLMÜLLER, K. FUCHS, I. KIEFER*.