A Risky Object? How Microplastics Are Represented in the German Media

Microplastics are increasingly populating the environment and human and nonhuman bodies. Their presence has invoked concerns about potential environmental and health effects, resulting in increasing research and media reporting. Here, we explore how the German print media reported on microplastics between 2004 and 2018. We find three distinct phases of reporting in which microplastics are introduced, stabilized, and destabilized as a “risk object.” We show that different attributions of risk go hand in hand with divergent assessments of who is responsible for risk management and argue that media cycles of affirming and contesting risk might undermine public trust in scientific findings.