My paper explores the history of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) and the associated Chinese Restaurant Syndrome (the anecdotal set of bodily symptoms that was commonly believed to be the result of MSG consumption, particularly in Chinese restaurant food) to analyze how scientific knowledge and conversely, scientific/health misinformation, are constructed and disseminated through the interactions of scientific research, popular journalism, commercial media, and public policy. I refer to these interactions as “science-scape(s).”

This project stems from a paper I wrote for “Rise of Modern Science,” a class I took when I was a freshman. While my initial paper focussed solely on the scientific research surrounding MSG, the final project allowed me to explore different areas I’m curious about. I’m familiar with creative writing and media analysis through work in my classes over the years, and my recent coursework, which includes the work of scholars such as Donna Haraway, has helped provide me with valuable critical race, postcolonial, and feminist STS perspectives that informed my work. At a personal level, I often confront foreignness and otherization in the US. This experience has shaped my passion for this work.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, Monosodium Glutamate has occupied a tense and multifaceted position in our consciousness, evolving through and with a changing scientific, political, and media landscape. As a chemical, it has been and continues to be an object of scientific scrutiny. As a food additive, it has been regulated by public health agencies and reported on by media outlets. As a commercial product, it has been branded, marketed, purchased, and used by everyday people. As a seasoning, it has made its way into their meals and bodies. None of these identities has existed independently—each has been mutually informed by the others. Across them all, the conversation around MSG has been mired in national, ethnic, and racial connotations that show up at various levels, some more identifiable than others.

During my preliminary research, I discovered that the MSG scare started with a letter in 1968 citing anecdotal evidence that food from Chinese restaurants caused a range of uncomfortable symptoms such as numbness, weakness, and palpitation. This single letter lit the fuse for decades of anti-MSG research, reporting, and rhetoric, which is why I was shocked to hear claims that the letter may have been a hoax to begin with. I thoroughly enjoyed the research process for my media analysis sections, where I got to dig into implicit and explicit instances of racist rhetoric specifically designed for mass public consumption. In newspaper articles, for instance, MSG’s symptoms went so far as to include depression and “feeling a little crazy.”

I aimed to demonstrate that our understanding of science, medicine, and health is shaped by the direct and indirect sources of information we engage with. That is, conceptions of truth, fact, credibility, and objectivity shift based on media trends, for instance, the shift from print to television advertisements and the explosion of social media. Additionally, scientific and medical knowledge, which is commonly considered to be “objective,” “unbiased,” or “empirical,” is informed by social and political messaging.

As the media landscape is rapidly evolving to allow nearly anyone to generate and share information, all stakeholders—in the scientific sphere and beyond—must urgently rise to meet the political and cultural moment. In writing this paper, I have attempted not only to provide knowledge about MSG and the various information media that deal with it, but also to demonstrate, in action, how that knowledge can be constructed through considering these different media together.

The stakes feel higher than ever before, and I think it’s important we all consider how we make space for lived experiences and expertise and embrace them to enhance our collective knowledge of the world.