A presentation that I provided during a student conference: Connecting Medicine, Science and Society

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?

6. NEWSWORTHINESS (CHIBNALL, 1977)
1. Immediacy
2. Dramatisation
3. Personalisation
4. Simplification
5. Titillation
6. Conventionalism
7. Structured access
8. Novelty (Newburn, 2007: 4)

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