The Politics of Invisibility: Public Knowledge about Radiation Health Effects after Chernobyl

Appendix: Data and Methodology

This research has relied on a wide range of sources, including interviews, documents, and media coverage. My general methodological approach has been guided by grounded theory methodology.1 This approach emphasizes analytical induction and the ongoing analysis of data. Data analysis starts from the earliest stages of research. Data collection is directed and controlled by the emerging theory: concepts and hypotheses emerge from the data and point to the next steps and sources. The criterion for when to stop this ongoing sampling is the “theoretical saturation” of the emerged categories , defined by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss as the point at which “no additional data are being found whereby the sociologist can develop properties of the category. As he [or she] sees similar instances over and over again, the researcher becomes empirically confident that a category is saturated.”2 To achieve saturation of the categories, the researcher seeks to uncover inconsistencies within the data and collect further data on cases that could potentially contradict the emergent categories. Guided by this general methodological approach, I followed several lines of data collection. First, I conducted interviews with those working on Chernobyl-related issues in Belarus: scientists and physicians, government administrators, members of NGOs, and members of international projects. I also conducted interviews with several evacuees and cleanup workers in Minsk, but then I focused on interviewing laypeople living in the contaminated territories. Most of these interviews were conducted during trips with radiologists from the Institute of Radiation Protection “Belrad” and with the international program CORE. (The field trips and interviews are described in more detail below.) Second, I attempted to historically reconstruct transformations in the visibility of Chernobyl in Belarus. The importance of understanding the history of these transformations became apparent to me as I was conducting Appendix: Data and Methodology 166 Appendix interviews for this project; it became clear that my interviewees were consistently responding to and commenting on some extended history of the public discourse on Chernobyl. To capture historical transformations of this discourse, I conducted content analysis of 20 years of Chernobyl coverage in four Belarusian newspapers (see below). The following documents were also collected and analyzed as primary sources: national and international reports on Chernobyl, radiation protection booklets, texts of Chernobyl laws and related regulations, Belarusian scientific publications and journals, and Internet sites of key relevant organizations. Many of the document sources collected (such as national reports on Chernobyl) have limited distribution, and I relied on my interviewees to learn about these sources and gain access to them. Only chapter 3 describes Chernobyl media coverage directly, but the observation that emerged from this analysis— that the visibility of Chernobyl fluctuated historically—has informed my argument in all the chapters. Indeed, a systematic analysis of extended periods of media coverage might be the only way to trace the transformations of Chernobyl's consequences in the public discourse. An awareness of the extent and historical timing of these transformations later informed my analysis of the interviews and other data. Analysis of Chernobyl Media Coverage For the media analysis I chose to focus on four newspapers: 1. Sovetskaya Byelorussiya (currently published under the title Belarus Segodnya / Sovetskaya Byelorussiaya [Belarus Today/Soviet Byelorussiya]) is the main official newspaper, published in Russian. In order to provide the most comprehensive and accurate analysis, I used exhaustive sampling for 1986– 2004. I accessed hard copies of the newspaper for 1986–2000; Belarus Today/ Soviet Byelorussiya articles for 2001–2005 were accessed through online newspaper archives. In total, I found and analyzed 550 Chernobyl-related articles of various lengths, from a couple of paragraphs to several pages. 2. Gomelskaya Pravda [Gomel Pravda] is the main local newspaper in the most affected Gomel region. In 1986 it was published in Belarusian and was issued five times a week. Starting in 1996, it appeared four times a week, then dropped to three times a week in 2000. The language of the newspaper changed to Russian in 1998. I sampled six months every other year, starting from 1986 and including 2004. This sampling fit with the annual pattern of Chernobyl-related coverage: more articles appeared around the date of Appendix 167 the accident (April 26) and at the end of summer, the main agricultural season and the time for gathering the mushrooms that are known to accumulate particularly high concentrations of radionuclides. Chernobyl-related articles during other months appeared less frequently. The total number of Gomelskaya Pravda...