ABSTRACT
Although the products of science and technology play a major part in our everyday lives, they are, for the most part, taken-forgranted and ‘invisible’. As a result, one of the ways in which we become most directly aware of the impact of science and technology is through media reporting of socio-scientific issues, that is, social issues with a significant scientific or technological dimension. Among the many such issues which have arisen in recent years are concerns about BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and meat products, arguments about the disposal of radioactive waste from the nuclear power industry, worries about global climatic effects of carbon dioxide emissions and debates about the use of genetically engineered organisms.
