Implicit media frames: automated analysis of public debate on artificial sweeteners

The framing of issues in the mass media plays a crucial role in the public understanding of science and technology. This article contributes to research concerned with the analysis of media frames over time by making an analytical distinction between implicit and explicit media frames, and by introducing an automated method for the analysis of implicit frames. In particular, we apply a semantic maps method to a case study on the newspaper debate about artificial sweeteners, published in the New York Times between 1980 and 2006. Our results show that the analysis of semantic changes enables us to filter out the dynamics of implicit frames, and to detect emerging metaphors in public debates. Theoretically, we discuss the relation between implicit frames in public debates and the codification of meaning and information in scientific discourses, and suggest further avenues for research interested in the automated analysis of frame changes and trends in public debates.     

Investigating CSI: portrayals of DNA testing on a forensic crime show and their potential effects

The popularity of forensic crime shows such as CSI has fueled debate about their potential social impact. This study considers CSI's potential effects on public understandings regarding DNA testing in the context of judicial processes, the policy debates surrounding crime laboratory procedures, and the forensic science profession, as well as an effect not discussed in previous accounts: namely, the show's potential impact on public understandings of DNA and genetics more generally. To develop a theoretical foundation for research on the "CSI effect," it draws on cultivation theory, social cognitive theory, and audience reception studies. It then uses content analysis and textual analysis to illuminate how the show depicts DNA testing. The results demonstrate that CSI tends to depict DNA testing as routine, swift, useful, and reliable and that it echoes broader discourses about genetics. At times, however, the show suggests more complex ways of thinking about DNA testing and genetics.     

History of science and American science policy

Historians of science have participated actively in debates over American science policy in the post-World War II period in a variety of ways, but their impact has been more to elucidate general concepts than to effect specific policy changes. Personal experiences, in the case of the debate over global warming, have demonstrated both the value and the limits of such involvement for the making of public policy. To be effective, historians of science need to strive for clarity in public expression, to accept the importance of engaging with the public at all levels and through diverse media, and, above all, to recognize that the nature of such debates will make normal scholarly nuance hard to achieve. Moreover, in the current political climate, historians may be surprised to find themselves defending sciences, when the usual stance of historians is to be critical.     

Institutional shaping of research priorities: A case study on avian influenza

Since outbreaks in 2003, avian influenza has received a considerable amount of funding and become a controversial science policy issue in various respects. Like in many other global and multidisciplinary societal problems fraught with high levels of uncertainty, a variety of perspectives have emerged over how to “tackle” avian influenza and public voices have expressed concern over how research funds are being allocated. In this article, we document if and how research agendas are being informed by public policy debates. We use qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine the relations between expectations of outcomes of public science and the existing research landscape. Interviews with a cross-section of stakeholders reveal a wide range of perspectives and values associated with the nature and objectives of existing research avenues. We find that the landscape of public avian influenza research is not directly driven by expectations of societal outcomes. Instead, it is shaped by three institutional drivers: pharmaceutical industry priorities, publishing and public research funding pressures, and the mandates of science-based policy or public health organizations. These insights suggest that, in research prioritization, funding agencies should embrace a broad perspective of research governance that explicitly considers underlying institutional drivers. Deliberative approaches in public priority setting might help to make agendas more plural and diverse and thus more responsive to the contested and uncertain nature of avian influenza research.     

Public perception of evolution and the rise of evolutionary psychology in Finland

In this paper we analyse the media debate in Finland that began after the publication in Science of a survey on the public acceptance of evolution. According to the results Finland ranked 17th among 34 countries. This was unexpected in a secular high tech nation with a consistent top performance in international comparative surveys on public education. We trace the main arguments in this debate in relation to previous studies on the public understanding of science and argue that newspaper claims of declining acceptance of evolutionism in Finland were based on rather ambivalent data. Furthermore, in the debate, evolutionary theory became a metonymy for science in society. The results published in Science provided a platform for a critique of religion and alternative movements, something quite uncommon in Finnish media. Finally, the debate was taken as an opportunity to promote evolutionary psychology as a legitimate social science.     

Adverse events and placebo effects: African scientists, HIV, and ethics in the 'global health sciences'

This paper builds on the growing literature in 'postcolonial technoscience' by examining how science and ethics travel in transnational HIV research. I use examples of two controversial US-funded studies of mother-to-child transmission in Africa as case studies through which to explore quandaries of difference and inequality in global health research. My aim is not to adjudicate the debates over these studies, but rather to raise some questions about transnational research, science, and ethics that often get lost in public controversies over the moral status of such trials. Using interviews conducted with American and Ugandan HIV researchers as well as relevant material published in the popular and medical press, I argue that debates over research practice and the conditions under which practices are deemed ethically legitimate or questionable reflect the challenges faced by African researchers seeking to participate in global health science. In doing so, I show how questions of scientific legitimacy and authority are played out in debates over who decides what constitutes 'the normal' in human biological research and who can legitimately 'speak for Africa' regarding the ethics of research design and practice. I conclude that researchers from'resource-poor settings' must often walk a tightrope between claims of difference from the global North and assertions of sameness, in which a claim too forceful in either direction can undermine the ethical--and thus scientific--legitimacy of their research.     

Lay experts and the politics of breast implants

This paper discusses the controversy around breast implants in the United States and Europe. It focuses on the emergence of consumer and support groups for women and offers an analysis of the role they have played in recent policy developments in UK and Europe. The politics of breast implants is seen as a politics of knowledge in which scientific expertise has consistently been deployed in ways that minimize the credibility and legitimacy of women's accounts of their bodies and illness experiences. These women have been doubly disadvantaged in a policy debate that turns on scientific controversy and uncertainty. This implies a gendered dynamic to the changing relations of knowledge and expertise. The paper contributes to an understanding of the relations between regulators, manufacturers, users, and clinicians in the global medical device industry and to wider debates around the public understanding of science.     

Patenting and US academic research in the 20th century: The world before and after Bayh-Dole

The dramatic growth of patenting and licensing of publicly funded research by American research universities in the closing quarter of the 20th century has stimulated some of the highest-profile debates in science and technology policy today. The issue of what aspects of academic research should be public - and what private - lies at the heart of each of these debates. The movement of academic scientists into commercialisation of discoveries and inventions has been extolled by some as a new model of academic research, one which facilitates economic and social returns from universities. At the same time, this trend has been criticised by others as representing a socially inefficient ‘privatisation’ of academic research and as a threat to the ethos of science itself. This paper places these debates in historical context, with a review of changes in American universities’ patenting policies, procedures and practices throughout the 20th century, an assessment of the logic underlying the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, and an overview of its effects on economic returns from university research.     

质性研究方法在档案学领域的应用分析与启示

【目的/意义】了解档案学质性研究方法的应用,促进档案学研究的“科学化”及对自身方法论体系的改进与反思,有利于推动图情档一体化发展。【方法/过程】研究基于档案学两本CSSCI期刊,构建内容分析编码表进行人工编码与分析。【结果/结论】结果表明：(1)案例研究法、历史研究法是我国档案学质性研究方法体系的核心,单一方法应用占主流;(2)各质性研究方法呈现差异化的应用过程,方法应用内部存在不均衡性;(3)质性研究主题多样,部分研究主题与研究方法之间存在一定的对应关系;(4)现象描述、对策建议类研究的实践贡献突出,理论贡献略显不足。在此基础上从方法体系构建及图情档一体化发展等角度提出了研究启示。【创新/局限】采用内容分析法系统梳理了质性研究方法在档案学两本核心期刊中的应用状况,但样本量及样本选取范围有待扩充。     

Extramural research grants and scientists’ funding strategies: Beggars cannot be choosers?

Although competitive funding of public research has been characterised as providing output incentives that raise efficiency and productivity, we know very little about whether the quality of a scientist's research is in fact the primary award criterion on which funding bodies base their grant decision. This paper provides insights into scientists’ strategies for obtaining project-based research funding in the presence of multiple funding opportunities. It draws a distinction between four types of grants, including the Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP6), government, foundation, and industry grants. Based on a sample of more than 800 scientists at universities and public research institutes in Germany, the results indicate that scientist productivity measured in terms of publication and patent stock is a statistically significant determinant only for obtaining foundation and industry grants while the award of an FP6 or government grant is influenced by other characteristics. The results further show that the different grants are not complementary, i.e. scientists specialise in certain grants. In this respect, the analysis informs science, technology and innovation policy about potential discrepancies between policy rhetoric, stipulated award criteria, and actual funding outcomes which makes it possible to fine-tune the debate on how public research should be financed.     

Public bioethics and publics: consensus, boundaries, and participation in biomedical science policy.

Public bioethics bodies are used internationally as institutions with the declared aims of facilitating societal debate and providing policy advice in certain areas of scientific inquiry raising questions of values and legitimate science. In the United States, bioethical experts in these institutions use the language of consensus building to justify and define the outcome of the enterprise. However, the implications of public bioethics at science-policy boundaries are underexamined. Political interest in such bodies continues while their influence on societal consensus, public debate, and science policy remains ambiguous. This article presents a theoretical discussion of public bioethics bodies as boundary organizations and examines them in terms of relationship to the moral and cognitive authority of science and other forms of expertise, mechanisms for public participation in controversial science policy, and the deployment of consensus models. The theoretical discussion is examined in the case of the U.S. Human Embryo Research Panel.     

Public bioethics and publics: consensus, boundaries, and participation in biomedical science policy

Public bioethics bodies are used internationally as institutions with the declared aims of facilitating societal debate and providing policy advice in certain areas of scientific inquiry raising questions of values and legitimate science. In the United States, bioethical experts in these institutions use the language of consensus building to justify and define the outcome of the enterprise. However, the implications of public bioethics at science-policy boundaries are underexamined. Political interest in such bodies continues while their influence on societal consensus, public debate, and science policy remains ambiguous. This article presents a theoretical discussion of public bioethics bodies as boundary organizations and examines them in terms of relationship to the moral and cognitive authority of science and other forms of expertise, mechanisms for public participation in controversial science policy, and the deployment of consensus models. The theoretical discussion is examined in the case of the U.S. Human Embryo Research Panel.     

Social Dynamics of an On-Line Scholarly Debate

This article focuses on different means of constructing a scholarly on-line debate related to the field of science, technology, and society. The study shows how scientific interactions are reproduced in a new medium while, simultaneously, some users take advantage of new possibilities offered by the medium. The first section analyzes how the debate emerged, was constructed, and subsequently revealed the heterogeneity of goals and ideas among the participants. The second section discusses the practices that the participants explored to make the debate evolve. Two attitudes, identified as strategic and tactical, were observed. The tactical practices were to enable the emergence of a sense of community. From this perspective, the way some participants sustained mobilization and stimulated participation are analyzed. The strategic attitude is illustrated through the behavior of those who tried to be the leaders in the debate.     

突发事件微博网络舆情分析及可视化——以“武汉封城”为例

[目的/意义]结合微博舆情社会属性与外化表现模型,对微博网络舆情进行研究。[方法/过程]基于心理学、传播学理论从人、事、情三个维度对突发事件微博舆情进行分析,以“武汉封城”事件为例进行实证研究,并建立网站进行相关可视化展示。[结果/结论]深入剖析舆情背后公众的关注重点,为舆情趋势的研判,政府对舆情的治理提供可靠的依据。从情报学、心理学、传播学多角度出发,定量和定性方法相结合,充分解读舆情,为以后的舆情研究提供新角度和新思路。     

The embryo research debate in Brazil: from the National Congress to the Federal Supreme Court

New forms of life produced by biomedical research, such as human embryonic stem cells (hESC), have been the object of public debate beyond the scientific fields involved. This article brings to light the case of Brazil, where recently passed federal legislation has authorized research with in vitro human embryos. It focuses on the legislative debate in the Brazilian National Congress between 2003 and 2005 on the Biosafety Bill of Law, which cleared for hESC research a certain share of supernumerary and unviable human embryos frozen in the country's assisted reproduction clinics. The passing of this Bill triggered other public reactions, chiefly a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality in Brazil's Federal Supreme Court. This study adopts an anthropological perspective for describing and analyzing the chief arguments in both debates, in terms of how the notion of 'life' was deployed and negotiated by contending parties. If, on the one hand, the definition of life appeared firmly attached to a conception of both the in vitro embryo and the fetus as a human person, on the other a movement towards breaking down life along utilitarian lines was found when the potential beneficiaries of stem cell therapy came into the equation. In all cases, however, notions of life were negotiated from a hybrid continuum of (biological) facts and (religious, moral and juridical) values, and resonated in different ways with the idea of the individual as privileged mode of constructing personhood in the context of modern nation states.     

Science transformed? A comparative analysis of ‘societal relevance’ rhetoric and practices in 14 Canadian Networks of Centres of Excellence

One of the most hotly debated ideas in science studies is the claim that contemporary science is in the midst of a transformation. While ‘transformationalist’ arguments and concepts vary, their core principle is that the norms, values and practices that have enforced the separation of science from society are being challenged by new expectations that scientists pursue closer connections with industry, government and/or civil society, and address research questions of immediate value to non-academic partners. While many major funding agencies have embraced this idea and now pressure scientists to enhance the ‘societal relevance’ of their work, the impact of these changes on scientific practices is still unclear. This paper reports findings from a comparative meso-level analysis of 14 large Canadian research networks funded by an agency with an explicit transformationalist mandate – the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) programme. Documents and web communications from these 14 NCEs, as well as from the central programme administration office, are analysed and compared to key transformationalist concepts, such as Mode 2 science, post-normal science, the triple helix model, academic capitalism and strategic science. We find that transformationalist ideas have a strong rhetorical presence across the 14 NCE projects and the central office, but that a great deal of inconsistency and confusion exists at the level of implementation and assessment of outcomes. Easily quantifiable outputs, such as the commercialization of research findings, are favoured over softer qualitative outcomes, such as public engagement and knowledge sharing. We conclude by arguing that the NCE programme is having an observable impact on the rhetoric of science, but any resulting transformations in practice are incremental rather than radical.     

Biotechnology in Switzerland: high on the public agenda, but only moderate support

In Switzerland, there have been intensive public debates about biotechnology because of the specific Swiss political system of direct democracy that led, in 1992 and 1998, to two national referenda on biotechnology regulation. As a result, the Swiss population is well informed but skeptical about this technology. These findings contrast with the deficit model of public understanding of science, which predicts a positive correlation between knowledge of, and support for, a specific technology. What role did the media play in the development of public opinion? This question is discussed because of a content analysis (time series) of national newspapers. In addition, representative surveys and focus groups yield insights into the public perception of biotechnology and the influence of mass communication for opinion formation.     

Public support of science: A contingent valuation study of citizens' attitudes about CERN with and without information about implicit taxes

Large-scale projects in fundamental science, such as major particle colliders, radio telescopes, synchrotron light sources are promoted by scientific communities in the first place, mainly funded by governments, and ultimately by taxpayers. Little is known, however, about preferences of the latter except in the form of qualitative social attitudes survey. We suggest that understanding taxpayers' preferences in the form of their willingness to pay (a money metric) for fundamental science is feasible and informative. We have designed a contingent valuation (CV) experiment about public support of science as reflected in the preferences of Swiss taxpayers for particle physics research at CERN, the laboratory where the Higgs boson has been discovered in 2012. Differently from a previous study on the attitudes of French citizens, in this paper we propose a novel methodological framework by a dual repeated bidding mechanism where sub-samples of respondents are respectively given/not given the information on the implicit tax they already pay to support CERN in the first place. We find clear convergence of results between the groups and discuss why such a finding has policy and methodological implications for research on government funding of basic research. We compare findings in Switzerland and France. The experiment is replicable in different countries and scientific fields and opens the way to a new empirical research avenue on the public support to science.     

新“科玄”之争的认识论根源

因“索卡尔事件”引起的科玄论争,是世纪之交以来爆发的规模最大的论争。新“科玄”之争存在深刻的认识论根源。只有对科学进行准确定位,对知识系统进行分类并还数学与逻辑学知识王国的桂冠地位,才能使反科学与伪科学无处遁形,知识王国内的纷争才能趋于有序。     

Dangerous Darwinism

We are concerned with a particular rhetorical narrative that appeared in the early stages of the Darwin debate but that has been fiercely resurgent in the past two decades. Freud wrote of Darwin's theory as one of three major blows to which human vanity had been submitted at the hands of science. Assertions that "Darwin's dangerous idea" came as a horrible shock to the Victorians and that it is still a profound psychological threat, and therefore widely resisted, remain current. When such assertions are offered as the premise on which Darwin is to be approached by the general reader they call for some detailed scrutiny, with regard both to the bases on which they are made, and the effect they have on the terms of public debate. This paper offers a critique of the culture-shock myth based on a re-examination of Victorian reactions to Darwin's work, and on an analysis of the ways in which the myth functions as a rhetorical strategy in our own time.