Science and the Media: Alternative Routes to Scientific Communications

by Bucchi; Massimiano

• ISBN13: 9780415189521
• ISBN10: 0415189527
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-08-25
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Massimiano Bucchi reviews the existing literature, and presents a theoretical framework on how and why scientists address the general public, focusing on three cases: anthrax, the Big Bang, and cold fusion.

Table of Contents

List of figures	ix	(1)
Preface	x	(2)
Acknowledgements	xii
1 Introduction	1	(14)
The `canonical account' of public communication of science	1	(4)
The social representation of scientific theories	5	(2)
The role of scientific imagination	7	(1)
A communication continuum	8	(1)
Cognitive trajectories and their obstacles	9	(2)
The popular stage and its implications	11	(4)
2 When scientists turn to the public	15	(18)
Metaphors, paradoxes and boundary objects in public communication of science	21	(1)
Metaphors in science	22	(2)
Constitutive and popular metaphors	24	(2)
Metaphors and paradoxes	26	(1)
Paradox in science	27	(1)
The role of paradox in scientific communication	28	(2)
Boundary objects	30	(3)
3 Case studies	33	(90)
Preliminary remarks	33	(3)
Making and unmaking science in public: the cold fusion case	36	(41)
Appendix 3.A	77	(3)
Appendix 3.B	80	(2)
A public explosion: Big Bang theory in the UK daily press	82	(19)
The public science of Louis Pasteur: the experiment on anthrax in the popular press of the time	101	(22)
4 Lines and tensions	123	(25)
Deviation as an exposure of the backstage	123	(7)
Public communication and boundary configurations	130	(4)
Mapping deviation	134	(2)
The second axis	136	(12)
Notes	148	(28)
References	176	(15)
Index	191