The essay compares German and Irish media coverage of human genome research in the
year 2000, using qualitative and quantitative frame analysis of a print media
corpus. Drawing from a media-theoretical account of science communication, the study
examines four analytic dimensions: (1) the influence of global and national sources
of discourse; (2) the nature of elaboration on important themes; (3) the extent of
societal participation in discourse production; (4) the cultural conditions in which
the discourse resonates. The analysis shows that a global discursive package,
emphasizing claims of scientific achievement and medical progress, dominates media
coverage in both countries. However, German coverage is more extensive and
elaborate, and includes a wider range of participants. Irish coverage more often
incorporates the global package without further elaboration. These findings indicate
that the global package is ’localized’ differently due to
national patterns of interests, German participation in human genome research,
traditions of media coverage, and the domestic resonance of the issue.
Allen, Kieran
(2000) The Celtic Tiger? The Myth of Social Partnership (
Manchester: Manchester University Press
).
2.
Audit Bureau of Circulations
(2000) Audit Bureau of Circulations - Newspaper Data.
<www.abc.com> (accessed 10 September 2000).
3.
Benford, R.D.
&
D.A. Snow
(2000)
‘Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment’
, Annual Review of Sociology26:
611-639
.
4.
Blumler, J.G.
,
J.M. McLeod
&
K.E. Rosengren
(1972) ‘An Introduction to Comparative
Communication Research’, in
J.G. Blumler
,
J.M. McLeod
&
K.E. Rosengren
(eds), Comparatively Speaking: Communication and Culture across Space
and Time (
Newbury Park, CA: SAGE
): 3-18.
5.
Celera
(2000) Celera Genomics Completes Sequencing Phase of the
Genome from One Human Being: Company Begins Sequencing Mouse Genome (
Rockville: Celera Genomics
).
6.
Cobb, R.
&
C.D. Elder
(1976)
‘Agenda Building as a Comparative Political Process’
, American Political Science Review70(1):
126-138
.
7.
Delanty, Gerard
&
Patrick O’Mahony
(2002) Nationalism and Social Theory (
London: SAGE
).
8.
Dierkes, Meinolf
&
Claudia von Grote
(2000) Between Understanding and Trust: The Public, Science
and Technology (
London & New York: Routledge
).
9.
Donati, Paolo R.
(1996)
‘From Political Discourse Analysis to the Analysis of Action and
Political Narrative’
. 4th International Social Science Methodology
Conference, 1-5 July.
10.
Dreyer, Marion
(1999) ‘Biotechnological Communication and the
Socio-Cultural Embeddedness of Economic Actors’, in
P.O’Mahony
(ed.), Nature, Risk and Responsibility. Discourses on
Biotechnology (
London: Macmillan
): 87-99.
11.
Drory, Gili S.
(2003) Science in the Modern World Polity:
Institutionalization and Globalization (
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
).
12.
Eder, Klaus
(1996) The Social Construction of Nature: A Sociology of
Ecological Enlightenment (
London: SAGE
).
Einsiedel, E.
,
A. Allansdottir
,
N. Allum
,
M.W. Bauer
,
A. Berthomier
,
A. Chatjouli
,
S. de Cheveigne
,
R. Downey
,
J.M. Gutteling
,
M. Kohring
,
M. Leonarz
,
F. Manzoli
,
A. Olofsson
,
A. Przestalski
,
T. Rusanen
,
F. Seifert
,
A. Stathopoulou
&
W. Wagner
(2002) ‘Brave New Sheep - the Clone Named
Dolly’, in
M.W. Bauer
and
G. Gaskell
(eds), Biotechnology: The Making of a Global Controversy (
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
): 313-347.
15.
Eurobarometer
(2002) Eurobarometer 58.0 - Europeans and Biotechnology in
2002 (
Brussels: European Union
).
16.
Ezrahi, Yaron
(1990) The Descent of Icarus (
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
).
17.
Ferree, Myra Marx
,
William A. Gamson
,
Jürgen Gerhards
&
Dieter Rucht
(2002) Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public
Sphere in Germany and the United States (
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
).
18.
Förger, Dirk (2000) ‘Die Geschichte der
Gentechnik’, Die Welt, 27 June: Section ‘Wissenschaft’.
19.
Galtung, Johan
&
Mari Holmboe Ruge
(1965)
‘The Structure of Foreign News: The Presentation of the Congo,
Cuba and Cyprus Crises in Four Norwegian Newspapers’
, Journal of Peace Research2:
64-91
.
20.
Gamson, William A.
(1992) Talking Politics (
New York: Cambridge University Press
).
21.
Gamson, William A.
&
Kathryn E. Lasch
(1983) ‘The Political Culture of Social Welfare
Policy’, in
S.E. Spiro
&
E. Yuchtman-Yaar
(eds), Evaluating the Welfare State: Social and Political
Perspectives (
New York: Academic Press
): 397-415.
22.
Gamson, William A.
&
Gadi Wolfsfeld
(1993)
‘Movements and Media as Interacting Systems’, inThe Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol.
526:
114-125
.
23.
Gerhards, Jürgen, Friedhelm Neidhardt & Dieter Rucht (1998)
Zwischen Palaver und Diskurs. Strukturenöffentlicher
Meinungsbildung am Beispiel der deutschen Diskussion zur Abtreibung
(Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag).
24.
Goffman, Erving
(1986) Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of
Experience (
Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press
).
25.
Görke, Alexander, Matthias Kohring & Georg Ruhrmann (2000)
‘Gentechnologie in der Presse. Eine internationale Langzeitanalyse von
1973-1996’, Publizistik 45(1): 20-37.
26.
Gottweis, Herbert
(1998) Governing Molecules: The Discursive Politics of
Genetic Engineering in Europe and the United States (
Cambridge, MA: MIT
).
27.
Graumann, Sigrid (2003) ‘Die Rolle der Medien in der
öffentlichen Debatte zur Biomedizin’, in S. Schicktanz, C.
Tannert & P.M. Wiedemann (ed), Kulturelle Aspekte der Biomedizin.
Bioethik, Religionen und Alltagsperspektiven (Frankfurt & New York:
Campus): 212-43.
28.
Gregory, Jane
&
Steve Miller
(1998) Science in Public. Communication, Culture, and
Credibility (
New York: Plenum Press
).
29.
Gurevitch, Michael
&
Jay G. Blumler
(1990) ‘Comparative Research: The Extending
Frontier’, in
David L. Swanson
&
Dan Nimmo
(eds), New Directions in Political Communication: A Resource Book (
Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications
): 305-325.
30.
Habermas, Jürgen (1968) Technik und Wissenschaft als
‘Ideologie’ (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp).
31.
Hajer, Maarten A.
(1995) The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological
Modernization and the Policy Process (
Oxford: Oxford University Press
).
32.
Hallon, D.C.
&
P. Mancini
(1992) ‘The Summit as Media Event: The
Reagan/Gorbachev Meetings on U.S., Italian and Soviet
Television’, in
J.G. Blumler
,
J.M. McLeod
&
K.E. Rosengren
(eds), Comparatively Speaking: Communication and Culture across Space
and Time (
Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications
): 1-15.
33.
Hampel, Jürgen & Ortwin Renn (1998) Kurzfassung der
Ergebnisse der Verbundprojekts Chancen und Risiken der Gentechnik aus Sicht der
Öffentlichkeit (Stuttgart: Akademie für
Technikfolgenabschätzung Baden-Württemberg).
34.
Hedgecoe, Adam M.
(1999)
‘Transforming Genes: Metaphors on Information and Language in
Modern Genetics’
, Science as Culture8(1):
209-229
.
35.
Herzog, Dietrich, Hilke Rebenstorf, Camilla Werner & Bernhard
Weßels (1990) Abgeordnete und Bürger. Ergebnisse einer
Befragung der Mitglieder des 11. Deutschen Bundestages und der
Bevölkerung (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag).
36.
Horkheimer, Max
&
Theodor W. Adorno
(1997) Dialectic of Enlightenment (
London & New York: Verso
).
37.
Informationsgemeinschaft zur Verbreitung von Werbeträgern (2000)
Informationsgemeinschaft zur Verbreitung von Werbeträgern -
IVW-Praxis (Bonn: IVW).
38.
Joas, Hans
(1996) The Creativity of Action (
Cambridge: Polity
).
39.
Kepplinger, Hans Mathias (1989) ‘Instrumentelle Aktualisierung:
Grundlagen einer Theorie publizistischer Konflikte’, in M. Kaase and W.
Schulz (eds), Massenkommunikation (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag): 199-220.
40.
Kepplinger, Matthias, Simone Ehmig & Christine Ahlheim (1991)
Gentechnik im Widerstreit. Zum Verhältnis von Wissenschaft und
Journalismus (Frankfurt & New York: Campus).
41.
Kitzinger, Jenny
&
Jacquie Reilly
(1997)
‘The Rise and Fall of Risk Reporting: Media Coverage on Human
Genetics Research, “False Memory Syndrome” and
“Mad Cow Disease” ’
, European Journal of Communication12(3):
319-350
.
42.
Kohring, Matthias
&
Jörg Matthes
(2002)
‘The Face(t)s of Biotech in the Nineties: How the German Press
Framed Modern Biotechnology’
, Public Understanding of Science11(2):
143-154
.
43.
Lamont, M.
&
L. Thévenot
(2000) Rethinking Comparative Cultural Sociology (
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
).
44.
McQuail, Denis
(1984) Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction (
London: SAGE Publications
).
45.
Maletzke, Gerhard (1963) Psychologie der Massenkommunikation: Theorie und
Systematik (Hamburg: Verlag Hans-Bredow-Institut).
46.
Marcuse, Herbert
(1964) One Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of
Advanced Industrial Society (
London: Routledge
).
Nelkin, Dorothy
(1995) Selling Science. How the Press Covers Science and
Technology (
New York: W.H. Freeman and Company
).
49.
Nerlich, B.
,
R. Dingwall
&
D.D. Clarke
(2002)
‘The Book of Life: How the Completion of the Human Genome Project
Was Revealed to the Public’
, Health6(4):
445-469
.
50.
Nisbet, Matthew C.
&
Bruce V. Lewenstein
(2001)
‘A Comparison of U.S. Media Coverage of Biotechnology with Public
Perceptions of Genetic Engineering 1995-1999’
. Paper given at the International Public Communication of Science
and Technology Conference, Geneva,
1-3
.
51.
Noelle-Neumann, Elisabeth
&
Rainer Mathes
(1987)
‘The “Event as Event” and the
“Event as News”: The Significance of
“Consonance” for Media Effects Research’
, European Journal of Communication2:
391-414
.
52.
Nowotny, Helga
,
Peter Scott
&
Michael Gibbons
(2001) Re-Thinking Science: Knowledge and the Public in an
Age of Uncertainty (
Cambridge: Polity
).
53.
O’Mahony, Patrick
&
Gerard Delanty
(1998) Rethinking Irish History: Nationalism, Identity and
Ideology (
London: Macmillan
).
54.
O’Mahony, Patrick
&
Siobhan O’Sullivan
(2004) ‘Procedure and Participation: The
Genetically Modified Plants Controversy in the UK and
Ireland’, in
Alfons Bora
&
Heiko Hausendorf
(eds), Communicating Citizenship and Social Positioning in
Decision-Making Procedures: The Case of Modern Biotechnology (
Amsterdam: John Benjamins
) (In the Press).
55.
O’Mahony, Patrick
&
Tracey Skillington
(1999) ‘Constructing Difference: Discourse
Coalitions on Biotechnology in the Press’, in
P. O’Mahony
(ed.), Nature, Risk and Responsibility: Discourses of
Biotechnology (
London: Macmillan
): 100-113.
56.
Pellizzoni, Luigi
(1999)
‘Reflexive Modernisation and Beyond: Knowledge and Value in the
Politics of Environment and Technology’
, Theory, Culture and Society16(4):
99-125
.
57.
Pennisi, Elizabeth
(2000)
‘Breakthrough of the Year: Genomics Comes of Age’
, Science290:
2220-2221
.
58.
Protess, David L.
,
F. Cook
,
Jack Doppelt
&
James Ettema
(1992) The Journalism of Outrage: Investigative Reporting and
Agenda Building in America (
New York: Guilford Press
).
59.
Reiss, Michael J.
&
Roger Straughan
(1996) Improving Nature? The Science and Ethics of Genetic
Engineering (
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
).
60.
Ruhrmann, Georg, Thomas Stöckle, Frank Krämer &
Christian Peter (1992) Das Bild der ‘Biotechnischen
Sicherheit’ und der ‘Genomanalyse’ in der
deutschen Tagespresse (1988-1990) (Bonn: Büro für Technikfolgenabschätzung).
61.
Schäfer, Mike Steffen (2001) Diskurse über
Humangenomforschung in Deutschland und Irland (Leipzig:
Universität Leipzig).
62.
Schenk, Michael (2002) Medienwirkungsforschung (Tübingen:
J.C.B. Mohr).
63.
Scheufele, Dietram A.
(1999)
‘Framing as a Theory of Media Effects’
, Journal of Communication49(1):
103-122
.
64.
Science
(2000a)
‘Clinton and Blair Back Rapid Release of Data’
, Science287(5460) (24 March):
1903
.
Skillington, Tracey
(1997)
‘Politics and the Struggle to Define: A Discourse Analysis of the
Framing Strategies of Competing Actors in a “New”
Participatory Forum’
, British Journal of Sociology48(3):
493-513
.
68.
Snow, C.P.
(1959) The Two Cultures (
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
).
69.
Snow, David A.
,
E. Burke Rochford Jr
,
Steven K. Worden
&
Robert D. Benford
(1986)
‘Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation’
, American Sociological Review51(4):
464-481
.
Stichweh, Rudolf (1999) ‘Globalisierung von Wirtschaft und
Wissenschaft: Produktion und Transfer wissenschaftlichen Wissens in zwei
Funktionssystemen der Modernen Gesellschaft’, Soziale Systeme 5: 27-39.
72.
Torronen, J.
(2001)
‘Between Public Good and the Freedom of the Consumer: Negotiating
the Space, Orientation and Position of US in the Reception of Alcohol Policy Editorials’
, Media, Culture and Society23:
171-193
.
73.
van Dijk, Teun
(1997) Discourse Studies (
London & Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications
).
74.
Weingart, Peter (2001) Die Stunde der Wahrheit? Zum Verhältnis
der Wissenschaft zu Politik, Wirtschaft und Medien in der
Wissensgesellschaft (Weilerswist: Velbrück).
75.
Weingart, Peter
(2002)
‘The Moment of Truth for Science: The Consequences of the
“Knowledge Society” for Society and Science’
, EMBO Reports3(8):
703-706
.
76.
Weingart, Peter, Jürgen Kroll & Kurt Bayertz (1992)
Rasse, Blut und Gene: Geschichte der Eugenik und Rassenhygiene in
Deutschland (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp).
77.
Wittkämper, Gerhard W., Jürgen Bellers, Jürgen
Grimm & Michael Heiks (1992) ‘Pressewirkungen und
außenpolitische Entscheidungsprozesse - Methodologische Probleme der
Analyse’, in Gerhard W. Wittkämper (ed.), Medien und
Politik (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft): 150-68.
