Abstract
Scientific‐technological innovation (particularly in the field of transgenic foods and cloning), scientific journalism and public opinion all share a complex relationship. The rupture of internal consensus among the scientific community, the role played by scientific journalists as “mediators” and the differentiation between what can be referred to as the “informed public” or “epistemological leaders” and the rest of the population were the starting point for our research on the impact of news related to biotechnological advances. In this paper we will show the principal characteristics of the discourse on this type of news among what we can call the “informed public”. From there, we will establish a set of strategies for improving the level of scientific‐technological alphabetisation in our complex societies.
Acknowledgements
This study was made possible thanks to the financing of the R & D National Plan for the BIO 2000–0167‐P4–03 Project entitled “Biodif. An Investigation of the Process of Disseminating Information on Biotechnology in Spain: A Methodological Approach to Evaluating its Impact”.
Notes
[1] Using two discussion groups, with informed public being understood as the public that is interested in and informed about science, newspaper readers, young people (18–29 years of age) and adults (30–49 years of age) carried out in Madrid in November 2004.