Introduction and Guide to Module

ENSCOT/mediastudies/commentary

ENSCOT

The European Network of Science Communication Teachers

Media Studies Module

Brian Trench

Contributors

Isabel Bassedas, Robert Duffy, Declan Fahy, Winfried Göpfert, Utz Lederbogen, Markus Lehmkuhl, Rick Holliman, Elsa Poupardin, Gemma Revuelta,

June 2003

Media Studies: Contents

Section 1: Introduction and Guide to Module 4

Credits and acknowledgements 5

Section 2: Media Structures 6

Introduction 6

Summary 7

Media Studies

Section 1: Introduction and Guide to Module

This part of the European Science Communication Module presents materials on science in the media. Early sections describe in broad terms how the media operates, introducing students to themes and ideas that arise in media studies.

We briefly review published analyses of several aspects of media institutions, referring specifically to the media landscape in five European countries. General media processes, such as demonstrating how journalists decide whether or not something becomes news, are also described. We then consider in greater detail analyses of the representations of science in the media and of the often difficult and tense relations between scientists and journalists.

These sections are intended to introduce students to some of the principal themes of what has become an active field of study. We offer many pointers to further reading in this topic area. Students would be advised to read these early sections in sequence, as they will then be better able to engage with the issues arising in the original case studies. At the end of each section we include a number of “questions for further study”. Students could use these questions as topics for classroom discussions or for group work.

In later sections, we present examples of content analysis of media coverage of science that we have conducted in selected newspapers across five countries in Europe. From these analyses, students are introduced to the varying ways that studies of the representations of science in the media can be undertaken. Our studies cover different types of science stories, across newspapers that serve different audiences. Different ways of performing an analysis are used. Some analyses look at specific topics that were reported within a particular time-frame. One analysis reviews all science stories that occurred within a given time period.

These studies are offered to students at varying levels of detail. For example, we have included analyses of media coverage across all five countries – in the case of finger length and sexuality – and a more general descriptive analysis of all science coverage over a four-day period for April 2001. In one case – coverage of three events, or ‘episodes’, in the sequencing of the human genome – we have included extensive tables with publication details of the newspaper articles referring to these episodes. (These Media Studies Tables can be viewed in a separate document, formatted as a spreadsheet in Excel.)

Using these Media Studies Tables, students and teachers can refer directly to the published material – and that could be an individual article in an individual newspaper, or the samples of all material published in one or more countries.

By following the country references in the section headings, students can follow the discussion of the broader science-in-media issues and the analysis of specific cases in a single country, or make comparisons between two or more countries. We have used the European Union’s codes for identifying member states and followed an alphabetical sequence of these codes. This gives the following order of countries that is used throughout the presentation of the module:

DE – Germany

ES – Spain

FR – France

IE – Ireland

UK – United Kingdom

We draw attention to the many issues that can arise in conducting studies of this kind. The approach we have taken to selecting the media to be reviewed, or to defining what newspaper items should be included in the analysis, and what not, is open to discussion and improvement. We stress at this stage that the methods applied in such a study are largely a function of the question being asked. In the final section, we offer a checklist of the issues to be considered in conducting a formal study of media representations of science.

Credits and acknowledgements

Those who worked on the materials in this section were: Winfried Göpfert and Utz Lederbogen, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany (DE); Isabel Bassedas and Gemma Revuelta, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain (ES); Elsa Poupardin, University of Paris 7, France (FR); Robert Duffy and Declan Fahy, Dublin City University, Ireland (IE); Rick Holliman, Open University, United Kingdom (UK). Brian Trench, Dublin City University, Ireland (IE), was group co-ordinator and editor.

Section 2: Media Structures

Introduction

Mass communication in general and media in particular are expanding areas of academic research and teaching. As the demand for courses in this area continued to grow, so too does the production of textbooks and scholarly research. Students of science communication, whether they comes from a background in natural sciences, social sciences or humanities, need to be aware, at some level, of this wider context in approaching studies of the particular issues in media communication and representation of science.

In the following sections, we review the media landscapes in the five countries, outlining the range of media outlets, the patterns of media ownership and regulation and the diversity of media types in each country. Surveys of the media in individual European states can be found at the European Journalism Centre Web site: www.ejc.nl/jr/emland/index.html

These surveys are periodically updated. The way in which the surveys are compiled and presented will suggest to students some of the key questions arising in considering how media are organised and what role they may play in society. The notes below, and the further reading material to which they refer, offer their own perspectives on the questions to consider in this context.

Media theory seeks to offer some means of understanding the complex sets of relationships that exist between the following sets of actors and factors:

· The reciprocal influences of the media on the political culture of a country

· The regulations and laws governing media and the ways in which media accommodate to, or seek to alter, that environment

· The owners and controllers of media and other elements of the elite, particularly the political ‘class’, in their societies

· The different degrees of emphasis on market performance and social responsibility that prevail in a country’s media

· The global growth of major multinational media conglomerates and its effects on national cultures

· The different degrees of autonomy of media professionals within the political culture of a country, and within the organisational context of their individual media

· The range and diversity of media types available in a society, and the patterns of consumption of these media

· The varying levels of access to the media for diverse social interests

Coming closer to our concerns in the study of science communication, media studies look at the “news values” that govern the selection and construction of news. Here, we take “news” to encompass all non-fiction story-telling in the media, not just those elements that match journalists’ narrower definition of news as a particular kind of concise, fact-based but impact-full narrative.

“News values” is the term used to refer to the (mainly implicit) sets of criteria that journalists use to identify which information, of all the masses of information available to them that might be considered to have some public significance, they select and which they ignore or discard. News values also guide the media professionals, once that selection has been made, in deciding how the information will be presented, with what emphasis, centred on which individuals or organisations, and so on.

“News values” is, then, a key concept in consideration of the media in the science communication context. The application of news values underlies the construction and the continuous reconstruction of the “news agenda”. In the view of some, this news agenda, or media agenda, has a strong influence on the agenda of public and political debate.

Another key concept is that of “news process”. This refers to the many filters through which information may pass to reach the media professionals, and, then, once it has been identified as “newsworthy”, the many more filters it may pass through before it reaches the media audience.

The actors in the news process are physical organisations and individuals, although, increasingly, their roles are played out virtually, by electronic means. Public relations officers package information from their institutions, parties and interest groups in a manner that is likely to appeal to the media. Individual media professionals act as “gatekeepers” in deciding whether to keep this information in play and pass it further on the line. But external actors and factors can have a substantial influence on this decision-making, either directly or indirectly.

The process of media production is one of continuous revision and, in that process, a story’s place in the agenda can be changed many times over. Competition with other media, the contributions of individual influential professionals, the further efforts to verify or substantiate some information received can all have an influence on how that revision finally bears fruit.

One of the strong reasons for engaging in media studies, whether it has to do with communication of science, or with something else, is the belief that the media have a significant influence in our society. Students of science communication will hear it often said that the media’s representations of science merits close attention because, for many, these are the only representations of science they receive, and because they are highly influential. However, even a brief examination of published materials on media theory in general, or on media effects in particular, will demonstrate that scholars in this area are far from certain what those effects are, or how strong or how determining they are.

This uncertainty, far from taking away from the value of this kind of study, should be seen as adding to its interest.

Summary

Studies of aspects of science communication occur within the wider context of media theory and mass communication research. Media theory offers different means of understanding the complex sets of relationships existing between actors and factors including, among others, a country’s media and its political culture, regulations and laws governing media, and ownership of media organisations.