ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on news media portrayals of the new genetics and its applications in the advancement of ‘the public’s’ health. Thus far, there has been relatively little systematic analysis of how the news media help shape public definitions of genetics, and its benefits and risks. This is surprising since the media is a major source of information on genetics and its implications for treatment and prevention, and occupies a crucial position at the interface between scientists and lay publics, serving to translate and disseminate expert knowledge. Indeed, as many sociologists and cultural theorists have argued, in contemporary societies the institutions of the media play a central role in ‘mediating’ all knowledge. As societies have become more complex, communication involving face-to-face encounters has been increasingly replaced by communication involving second-hand reports: firstly, via written forms, such as books, magazines, and newspapers, and then more and more via electronic means, such as fax, television, telephone, and the Internet. For many people, especially in the rich industrialized world, reality has become a ‘virtual reality’ in that their knowledge of many events and circumstances is gained largely from diverse ‘second-hand’ sources. However, such ‘virtual reality’ can have ‘real’ effects in that it may influence how people think about and act upon issues that profoundly shape their own and others’ lives. This is no less the case with genetic knowledge.
