Science fiction/science fact: medical genetics in news stories.
News media coverage of biotechnology issues offers a rich source of fictional portrayals, with stories drawing strongly on popular imagery and metaphors in descriptions of the powers and dangers of biotechnology. This article examines how science fiction metaphors, imagery and motifs surface in British newspaper (broadsheet and tabloid) coverage of medical genetic issues, focusing on press reporting of two recent highly publicised news media events; namely, the Hashmi and Whitaker families' plights to use stem cells from a 'perfectly matched sibling' for the treatment of their diseased children. It is concerned in particular with the extent to which journalists' use of certain literary devices encourages preferred formulations of medical genetics, and thereby potentially shapes public deliberation about scientific developments and their consequences for society. Understanding how science fiction sustains science fact, and vice versa, and how the former is portrayed in news media, it is argued, would thus seem to be crucial in the effort to understand why people respond so strongly to biotechnologies, and what they imagine their consequences to be.
Petersen
Alan
A
School of Sociology, Politics and Law, University of Plymouth, 8 Portland Villas, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 8AA, UK. alan.petersen@plymouth.ac.uk
Anderson
Alison
A
Allan
Stuart
S
D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000639:trends; D002648:Child; D033001:Directed Tissue Donation; D005544:Forecasting; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000639:trends; D005826:Genetics, Medical / Q000639:trends; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D020452:Journalism; D008093:Literature, Modern; D008402:Mass Media; D019365:Metaphor; D009524:Newspapers as Topic; D019836:Preimplantation Diagnosis; D012098:Reproduction; D012099:Reproductive Techniques / Q000639:trends; D012586:Science; D035781:Siblings; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D006113:United Kingdom