HPSC2002: Science in the Mass Media

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HPSC2002 Science in the Mass Media

• Dr Simon Lock
• Thursday 15th Jan 2009
• Introduction Science, Public and Media

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Science in the Mass Media

• The course is about three different, but
  interlinked, entities
• Science
• Public
• Mass Media
• We can draw the boundaries between these entities
  in many different ways. Often will depend on what
  you are studying?
• E.g. is science knowledge? A profession? A
  community? Politics?
• Does an audience equal the public?
• What counts as mass media?

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What are Mass Media?

• Popular usage
• Tends to refer to a loose but usually powerful
  assembly of journalists, institutions and media
  products
• But much more complicated than this.
• Lots often assumed about the media
• Very easy to generalise.
• Be careful of ever using statements like
• the media always do
• Note that media is plural!
• Def a medium is a means to get something from
  one place to another
• So museum, radio, newspaper, cinema, telephone,
  internet
• A mass medium reaches lots of people at the same
  time.
• The prominence of a medium changes historically

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What are media for?

• Historically conceived as an agent of democracy
• (nb. Refers to press - newspapers date back to
  17th C)
• Allow the public to be informed and involved in
  government
• Political function
• Journalists seen as the 4th estate of governance
• (Bishops, Lords, Commons)
• Idealised as agents of objectivity and truth,
  investigative and impartial.
• Newspapers not initially a mass medium due to
  restrictive nature of costs
• Rise of new middle class towards end of 19th C,
  new and cheaper papers
• Daily Mail est. 1896, tapped into this new mass
  market

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Press and mass markets

• Cheaper newspaper was made possible by
  advertising income
• Previous papers (Times est. 1785, Daily Telegraph
  est. 1855) relied on income from cover price
• Daily Mail 1896, first newspaper to get income
  from advertising
• Advertising relies on a mass consumer market
• So note dependence of mass media on market from
  early days!
• Question? Does this change the nature of press
  coverage?
• Probably - editorial policy related to
  advertising
• Advertising relies on high circulation to be
  effective
• By 1930s Daily Mail accounted for 72 of all
  newspaper sales
• First concerns about influence of mass mediums,
  birth of mass communications research

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Tabloids and Broadsheets

• These terms refer to paper size, but have become
  colloquially used as a marker of quality.
• Tabloid is half the size of a broadsheet.
• Daily Mail was originally in broadsheet format
• Daily Mirror est. 1903 was first tabloid format
• Recent changes in format size in UK has resulted
  in these terms becoming complicated.
• Tabloid sun, daily mirror
• Broadsheet telegraph (used to be also Times,
  Independent and Guardian)
• Times and Independent now avail in compact
  size, and Guardian is Berliner size
• So some alternative nomenclature

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Popular and Quality Press

• Popular Press- Sun, News of the World, Daily
  Mirror
• Quality/Elite Press Guardian/Observer,
  Independent, Times, Telegraph
• Daily Mail??
• Lots of debate today about the role of the press
• E.g. Dominance of Celebrity culture not very
  inkeeping with 4th estate role
• Other media - tv, cinema, internetvery different
  ethos to the press, different commercial
  pressures.
• Will consider these as we go along also.

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Media Studies

• Fuzzy and contentious field, lots of competing
  and conflicting ideas about how media works.
• Remember it is a branch of social sciences, so do
  not treat as a natural science
• V. Important
• Social science is about society e.g. large
  numbers of people
• Not about you necessarily
• Nice when data matches personal experience
• But does not always happen
• If personal experience would suffice to
  understand media, wouldnt need academic study
• So bear in mind the distinction between your own
  experiences of media and the academic ideas of
  media we will explore on this course.

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Media Studies II

• When considering theories about the media
• Two different types to be aware of
• Operational (descriptive) - how media/media
  people work
• Normative (usually prescriptive) - how they ought
  to work - aims and ideals
• e.g operational - 5 of newspaper stories are
  about science
• normative - there is not enough science in the
  newspapers
• Media scholars/sociologists tend to be
  operational
• Scientists/science communicators tend to be
  normative

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Modelling the media

• What are models?
• Not recipe or prescriptions
• Simple representations that reflect e.g. patterns
  of behaviour observed
• Think of models in physics
• Describe what is happening, do not change the
  thing they are describing
• So a model is something in the minds of academics
  to help us understand the world
• Journalists do not go to work saying I am going
  to work in this model today!

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Modelling the media II

• An early model - The transmission model
• Shannon and Weaver (1948)
• SENDER ? TRANSMITTER ? RECEIVER
• Sociologist Lasswell put it into words
• Who says what to whom, through what channel and
  with what effect?
• Simple model which assumes perfect transmission
  and reception of a message - but very predominant
  still.

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Modelling the media III

• From 1960s onwards many different models arisen
• Ritual model (cultural)
• Media is for sharing identity, provides
  affirmation of common knowledge
• Social value of process rather than outcomes
• Publicity model (sociological)
• Authorities display goods and compete for
  attention
• Reception model (psychological)
• All messages are polysemic (constructed by active
  recipients)
• Important when considering all models - how do
  they conceive the role of the media, message and
  public?

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Science in the Mass Media

• Can go back 100 years to find science as a
  recognised media category
• Early 20th C, science in newspapers was a common
  form of popular science, written by scientists
  themselves
• Then mass circulation newspapers started to
  report of science
• First World War - use of chemicals and poison gas
• Scientific industry, medicine
• Figures like Einstein and Freud
• So science written about by journalists as well
  as scientists
• Rise of the public as consumers of science and
  technology products in between wars rise in
  newspaper advertising

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Science in the Mass Media II

• First specialist science journalist in 1920s
• J.G. Crowther - Manchester Guardian
• Big economic crash of 1920s
• Lots of scientists on left of political spectrum
  wrote about science in media for society, science
  for good citizenship
• Knowledge freedom scientific socialism
• Second World War, Britain united around radio as
  mass medium
• Post-WWII - celebration of science in mass media
• science won the war, pro-nuclear energy,
  airlines, space race
• Science political due to role in international
  relations
• Science nationalised in Britain (public money) -
  NHS founded
• Lends itself to political reporting
• Only about 5 specialist science journalists pre
  WWII, huge expansion of profession after the war.

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Science in the Mass Media III

• Scientists in glare of media spotlight after WWII
• Quite difficult for many, despite general
  positive attitudes
• Late 1960s, rise of environmental movement,
  anti-nuclear movement, womens rights
• General anti-authority turn reflected in science
  news reporting
• Journalists became more critical of science, more
  investigative
• Move away from general celebration of science
• 1970s difficult period for science
• Decline of heavy industry and funding
• Labour unrest
• Decreasing coverage of science
• Science associated with environmental degradation

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Science in the Mass Media IV

• TV now also a big popular mass medium
• Changed the nature of science coverage
• Scientists could popularise science in press by
  writing an article, could go and talk on the
  radio
• Hard for a scientist to make a tv programme
• So less influential in terms of messages about
  science on TV
• Different mediators - journalists and
  broadcasters e.g. David Attenborough
• By end of 1970s hardly any scientists
  popularising science
• This climate start of movement for the Public
  Understanding of science (PUS)
• Scientists linked declining and critical coverage
  to declining funding for science

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The Public Understanding of Science (1980s - )

• Idea behind PUS in 1980s was that the world would
  be a better place if everyone knew more about
  science
• Informed by a belief that science was unloved due
  to public ignorance of science
• So if public understanding of science could be
  improved
• Then they would love it, appreciate it and
  subsequently funding for science would go up, and
  coverage would be more favourable.
• Became a movement for PUS among scientific
  institutions
• Ideas about the media run through proclamations
  about PUS
• Early statement from the Royal Society claimed
  that there wasnt enough science in the media,
  what there was was inaccurate or misrepresented
  science
• Original impetus for science communication
  research in the UK based on this characterisation
  of a problem

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PUS and science communication research

• Another issue was that a lot of the subsequent
  science communication research was entirely
  uninformed by past research about media, science
  or publics.
• E.g. many claims from the PUS movement assumed a
  direct media effect
• See/read science in the media know science and
  have positive attitude
• Media effects are much more complicated than this
• So a lot of science communication research
  normative in nature.trying to fix a perceived
  problemthe media should do this, that and the
  other.
• On this course need to be aware of how we bring
  together these agendas with the more operational
  theories about how the media works

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Media studies and science

• If we look at empirical data from media studies
  often find a different perspective
• Media science is no different to any other topic
  in the media
• Because science is also politics, economics,
  entertainment, people
• But also, and more importantly
• Science and the media are different professional
  communities, with different values, aims, working
  practices
• So issue of how to communicate science also going
  to be conceived differently
• The interaction of science and the media can tell
  us a lot about each entity
• Rest of the course will examine them from
  different perspectives