A study of themes arising within focus group discussions of U.S. lay publics (both student and nonstudent adults) in response to newspaper coverage of biotechnology is consistent with the assertion that media frames and reader schemas interact to produce an understanding of a newly emerging issue. Newspaper coverage heavily dominated by institutional sources and dealing with only a narrow range of issues may be limiting the terms of public debate in an unhealthy way. Readers reason by analogy with related and sometimes unrelated developments in trying to understand biotechnology, based on schemas reflecting their general understanding of science.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Brosius, H.
, and H. M. Kepplinger. 1992. Linear and nonlinear models of agenda setting in television. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media36(1): 5-23.
2.
Graber, D. A.
1988. Processing the news: How people tame the information tide. 2d ed.New York: Longman.
Hornig, S.1993. Reading risk: Public response to print media accounts of technological risk. Public Understanding of Science2(2): 95-109.
5.
Hornig, S.
, and J. Talbert. 1993. Mass media and the ultimate technological fix: Newspaper coverage of biotechnology. Discussion Paper No. CBPE 93-4, Center for Biotechnology Policy and Ethics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.
6.
Kuklinski, J. H.
, R. C. Luskin, and J. Bolland. 1991. Where is the schema? Going beyond the “s” word in political psychology. American Political Science Review85(4): 1341-1380.
7.
Plein, L. C.1991. Popularizing biotechnology: The influence of issue definition. Science, Technology, & Human Values16(4): 474-490.
8.
Tuchman, G.
1978. Making news: A study in the social construction of reality. New York: Free Press.
