ABSTRACT
The twenty-first century has witnessed a series of dramatic announcements about breakthroughs in human genetic research. These range from introducing the ‘first draft’ of the human genome by a UK/USA alliance (first announced in 2000) to a series of claims around the cloning of human embryos in South Korea and in the UK (in 2004/ 2005). In addition, a steady stream of other genetic stories have hit the headlines, including those associated with: the birth of the first ‘designer baby’, the manufacture of genetically engineered medicines, the discovery of new genes linked to disease and the development of stem cell-based therapies. The display of bioscientific achievements through a flurry of media attention has a
very long history which extends back to such landmark moments as the discovery of the structure of DNA (in 1953), the birth of the first ‘test-tube’ baby (in 1978) and the unveiling of Dolly the cloned sheep (in 1997). Each of these events became pivotal in the generation, not just of new scientific possibilities, but also of new cultural understandings. Hence, the discovery of the structure of DNA, was not simply a ‘scientific event’ (not that any event is ever simply ‘scientific’), but it also involved the image of the double helix itself which subsequently became ubiquitous and gave impetus to the idea that life was governed by a long string of codes, ACGT (Nelkin and Lindee 1995). Likewise, the development of IVF in the 1970s and 80s not only facilitated the acquisition of technological capacities for human genetic research but also garnered cultural resources that enabled the imagining of, and legislative frameworks for, future developments such as stem cell research (Haran et al. 2008: 19). Moreover, the unveiling of Dolly the sheep not only revealed a technical achievement in animal biology, it also sparked broader cultural engagement with the future potential, or threat, of human cloning (Franklin 2007; Petersen 2002). Against this background, this chapter examines research around the media coverage of
human genetics in the twenty-first century. However, this exploration is framed with reference to the longer histories of associated scientific and policy events, cultural imaginings, media coverage and related theoretical debates. Our analysis concentrates on research published in English and most of the studies we discuss are concerned with
developments in the UK, the USA or South Korea. This focus partly reflects our areas of expertise (and the limitations of our linguistic capabilities), but is also justified because these three countries have been important locations for the development of human genetics and hence also, for explosions of media attention to these developments and, in turn, for research analysing such media coverage. In the first half of the chapter we map the diverse interests which have informed and
sustained research on media coverage of genetics. Thus, we chart some of the policy priorities and disciplinary, political and intellectual traditions which have framed explorations in this field. Having set the scene in this way, we briefly review three classic studies from the 1990s, before introducing more recent research and reviewing the approaches, design and methods of these studies and reflecting on some of their theoretical and political features.
