A Grain of Truth

Susanna Hornig Priest

doi:10.5771/9780585379630

Summary

A Grain of Truth debunks the myth that growing public distrust of genetically modified organisms can be attributed to scientific illiteracy or sensationalistic news stories. Media coverage of these issues has been dominated by the spokespersons of industry_yet evidence of consumer uncertainty has been available all along. The roots of the controversy are visible in press coverage and public opinion polls over the past decade, covering everything from the manufacture of growth hormones used in dairy cows through the cloning of Dolly the sheep to the appearance of the so-called 'terminator gene.' Arguing neither for nor against genetic engineering and other forms of biotechnology, this book charges both media and industry with ignoring the concerns of the general public and encourages greater public debate over biotech and other such complex issues.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2002
ISBN-Print: 978-0-7425-0947-4
ISBN-Online: 978-0-585-37963-0
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 2
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Preface No access
1. Institutional Hegemony No access
2. Science and "Objectivity" No access
3. Cultural Context No access
4. Mass Media and Public Life No access
1. The Early Campaign No access
2. Cultural Motifs No access
3. Institutional Interest and Public Response No access
1. Press and Public Opinion in the West No access
2. World Press Issues No access
3. Trade Negotiations and "Third World" Issues No access
4. India: A Case Study No access
5. International News and Corporate Interest No access
1. Assessing Public Response No access
2. U.S. Public Opinion and the Polls No access
3. Science Literacy and Biotechnology No access
4. Perceptions of Technological Risk No access
1. Culture and Biological Boundaries No access
2. Genetics as Nature and Fate No access
3. Culture, Media, and Class No access
4. Individualism and the Genetic Revolution No access
5. Risk, Technology, and Democracy No access
1. Labeling and the Risk Agenda No access
2. Labeling and Risk Displacement No access
3. Labels and Public Relations No access
4. Labeling and Democratic Theory No access
1. Cloning and Science Journalism No access
2. Cloning as a Cultural Phenomenon No access
3. Cloning and Institutional Interest No access
1. Technology and Corporate Strategy No access
2. Breaking into Print No access
3. Alternative Accounts No access
4. Prospects and Perceptions No access
9 Lessons and Directions No access Pages 125 - 128
References No access Pages 129 - 134
Index No access Pages 135 - 140
About the Author No access Pages 141 - 2