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GE3LS RESEARCH INTO COMMUNICATING CONTROVERSIAL SCIENCE
Overview
The Pleiades Promoter Project aims to develop genetic tools towards therapeutic interventions for brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, ADHD and autism. Genomics research and gene therapy are among the most controversial areas of science, raising ethical, legal, social and other issues. This GE3LS project will investigate issues related to the public communication of controversial science, with a focus on genomics and gene therapy.
At present, this communication is limited by misinformation, advocacy, poor science communication and inadequate journalism. This research is thus motivated by three basic questions:
- What is the science communication process that produces genomic journalism?
- What roles do the news media play?
- How does the public comprehend and use the information they receive?
AREAS OF RESEARCH
This GE3LS project consists of three main areas of research.
1. Literature review
Our research will build on existing literature. Therefore, the first step will be to examine what has been written about the journalism done on genomics and gene therapy. This will include articles written in journals, books, Web material, content analyses, research projects and theses. After this initial stage of review, we will expand to include writings on the philosophy and history of science, science journalism in general, journalism ethics and public communication of science.
2. Surveys and interviews
To gain insight into how newsrooms obtain and handle science news we will perform surveys and interviews with both newsroom editors and journalists who cover science. The first stage of this research will focus on the major print outlets. We will expand to include Internet media and major broadcasters in the second stage of this research.
Furthermore, we will develop and perform psychological studies on how the public understands complex subject matter such as genomics through focus groups, questionnaires and interviews.
3. Content analysis
A content analysis will be designed that contributes to a better understanding of the nature of science journalism and journalistic coverage of stories with a strong scientific element in general-interest media. The research will analyze editorial work from different angles and using different techniques so as to draw up a rich and nuanced overview of the material made available to the public about science and science-related issues.
Given the magnitude of scope and diversity of science journalism defined in such a broad sense, this first content analysis will be restricted at the level of media and subject.
Media-wise, the study will be limited to daily newspapers. Although their reach tends to decline and varies across countries and demographic groups, they remain a crucial source of information among their readers but also among journalists of other media and opinion leaders. The study will include a range of newspapers selected on the basis of the importance of their readership and/or their position as influential and prominent media.
We will analyze for both factual (topic, position in news slot, headline-article tension, origin of story, types of sources, structure) and normative (accuracy, balance, context, critical facts about the science being reported, positive and negative implications, metaphors, types of "frames") variables.
OUTCOMES
Science journalism course at UBC School of Journalism
This GE3LS project has led to the creation of a science journalism course at the UBC School of Journalism. Beginning in January 2007, a credited course open to both journalism and science students began.
Web site
A Web site for science journalism information has stemmed from this project: www.sciencejournalism.net. Useful to scientists, educators, journalists, and the interested public, this will be a one-stop site for science journalism. It will include the latest information on the Pleiades Promoter Project, the GE3LS project and other related projects. News items, featured invited articles, upcoming events, research news and resources for journalists and others will be included on the site.
Workshops/Conferences
Two workshops on the public communication of science will be held to examine project research and issues in genomic journalism. The first of these occurred on November 9 and 10, 2007. Details and resulting coverage are available on our Web site.
Model for science journalism
Theoretically, the project will develop a new and more adequate normative model of the elements of good science journalism and identify fundamental norms and standards. In addition, the project will construct a new model of the role of science journalism in an age of new media.
Publishing
The results of the research will be published widely in all media formats — from journals and books to Web sites and magazines.
Scholarship
As a direct result of the GE3LS project, a $10,000 science scholarship has been established at the School of Journalism, which in 2007 is being shared equally by first-year journalism students Anna Fong and Trevor D’Arcy. In 2006 Gwen Preston and Jeffrey Helm shared the scholarship equally.
Scientist in Residence
The UBC School of Journalism is pleased to announce the appointment of Prof. Sid Katz as the school’s first Scientist-in-Residence.
Dr. Katz, a noted UBC science educator, journalist, and professor of pharmacology, has long supported the development of the School of Journalism and, in particular, its emphasis on science journalism. As scientist-in-residence for the academic year 2007-2008, Prof. Katz will teach and assist students with their research and thesis projects. He will advise the school’s Science Journalism Research Group as it carries out a four-year investigation into the public communication of controversial science.
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