ICT Role in 21st Century Education & its Challenges.pptx
Review of the Literature on Media Representations of the Human Genome Project
1. Katie Burke
Review Of The Literature On
Media Representations Of The
Human Genome Project
2. CONTENTS
Mass Media
Human Genome Project
Summary
Theories
Newsworthiness
Public Understanding of
Science and the Media
Coverage of the ‘Event’
Use of Metaphors
Conclusions
3. MASS MEDIA
Mass Media:
• Different forms of communication which is aimed at the majority of
the population
E.g. Newspapers (printed media) and Television
• Internet not commonplace in 2000
• 24/7 news was not commonplace
4. HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
(HGP)
Publicly funded – international collaboration
Celera Genomics – parallel, privately funded project
Announcement of first draft made together
Seen by many as a “revolution in biology” (Bentley 2000)
5. Positivism
• Deficit Model
Public Engagement Model
IMPORTANT THEORIES
Agenda Setting
• How is information
chosen?
Framing/ priming
• How is the information to
position the agenda?
• How can the media
influence opinions?
Constructionism
• How is reality constructed?
7. Deficit Model and the
Bodmer Report (1985)
• Media an important forum
for this
Simplification of science
communication
“The deficit model did not
deliver” (Miller 2001, p.117)
PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF
SCIENCE (PUS) AND THE MEDIA
Public Engagement Model
Different roles for laypeople
• Not just about education
• ‘Local’ knowledge (e.g.
Wynne)
Genomics and ELSI
Mass media can provide a
forum for this
• Less so at the time of HGP
8. COVERAGE OF AN ‘EVENT’
Huge increase in coverage for press release
Difference between the two projects
• Two personalities
Science story? Political story?
Provision of press packs
Specialist vs. General Reporters
Differences between countries
Effect on the publics
9. USE OF METAPHORS
Establishes relationships between sciences, mass media, and the
publics (Hellsten and Nerlich, 2008)
Examples:
• Breakthrough
• Book of Life
• Human Code
• Maps and Blueprints
• Playing God
• Pandora’s Box
Who is responsible for the metaphors?
10. CONCLUSIONS
Mass media played an important role in public relations with HGP
While PUS was becoming more participatory there are still strong
undercurrents of the deficit model
Agenda setting – linked with newsworthiness – needs to be
questioned more especially with the press packs
Use of metaphors constructs an understanding of the HGP –
which could be linked with theories of constructionism
Editor's Notes
Immediacy – speed/the present
Dramatisation – drama/action
Personalisation – cult of celebrity
Simplification – elimination of shades of grey
Titillation – revealing the forbidden/voyeurism
Conventionalism- hegemonic ideology
Structured access – experts/authority
Novelty – new angle/twist/speculation