ABSTRACT
Autism, a neurological disorder, is now regarded as reaching epidemic proportions (“Evidence mounts”) and considered a major public health problem. The dramatic increase in autistic diagnoses parallels a huge increase in scientific research on autism and related disorders such as Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), Asperger’s syndrome, and nonverbal communication disorders. For example, acting in response to the dramatic rates of increase in its autism diagnoses-up to 1000%—the state of California recently allocated $34 million to autism research (“California”). A range of media information directed toward popular audiences complements the scientific research. Information about autism can be found in an array of popular periodicals, including such varied titles as Time (Nash and Bonesteel), Newsweek (Cowley), The Economist (“Science and Technology”), and Scientific American (Rodier), and on a seemingly infinite supply of Web sites (e.g., www.autism.com; www.autismcenter.org; www.nichd.nih.gov/ autism/). Articles about the relationship between autism and vaccinations can be found in almost every daily newspaper within the United States (e.g., Bandler; “Drug Lawsuits”) and representations of autism find wide expression within the popular media, as illustrated by the well-known film Rain Man and others. More recently, the popular media have speculated on a causal relationship between autism and computer “geekiness” (Chapman; Nash and Bonesteel).
