ABSTRACT
The coverage of science by the non-specialized mass media-the daily press, radio, television, and magazines-has often been criticized by scientists, commentators, and analysts of media communication. The media are blamed for, among other things, allocating inadequate space to scientifi c topics, inaccuracy in reporting about the issues, and exaggerating the political or non-scientifi c signifi cance-indulging in dramatization and sensationalism. The media are often overtly accused of a negative, antiscientifi c attitude in their coverage of science (Friedman et al., 1986; Burnham, 1987; Farrands, 1993; Gunter et al., 1999).1 This conception of the media as a ‘dirty mirror’ of science, as an opaque lens unable to present and fi lter scientifi c content properly, has often been invoked in debates that have recently developed in the Italian public sphere as well, in the wake of issues such as BSE, the ‘Di Bella affair’, and GMOs.2 The frictions that have arisen in the relationship between scientifi c research and its institutions, on the one hand, and public opinion, on the other have often been attributed to the inadequacy of media coverage, largely responsible for the alleged ‘scientifi c illiteracy’ of Italians.
