Pictures at a demonstration

Abstract

This paper chronicles a four-day meeting of antibiotechnology and genetic engineering activists organized in conjunction with the annual meeting of the International Society of Animal Genetics held in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 2000. The paper examines the approaches taken by activists and journalists to shape the stories that were to be published in the mainstream press and the conflicts and contradictions inherent in the strategies of each. Paralleled with the efforts of activists and journalists to script the dominant narrative, the article examines the difficulties of producing a visual sociological representation of these events and suggests the inferences that can be drawn from interactions with and observation of event participants.