Fwd: JCOM 10(3) - new issue - September 2011
Dear friends, I have no time right now because of my trip, but it would be really great if someone could announce the issue, with focus on the articles on genomics ... Alessandro, I know you don't like to present your own article, but perhaps by pointing to the totality of the genomics articles? Michel ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 5:05 PM Subject: JCOM 10(3) - new issue - September 2011 To: [email protected] Dear all, we announce that the September 2011 issue of JCOM - Journal of Science Communication - (issue 3, volume 10) http://jcom.sissa.it/ is online. Comments, remarks and papers by you are kindly requested. Next issue will be online on the 21st December 2011. CONTENTS: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ARTICLE Print media reportage of agricultural biotechnology in the Philippines: a decade’s (2000-2009) analysis of news coverage and framing Mariechel J. Navarro, Jenny A. Panopio, Donna Bae Malayang, Noel Amano Jr. This article presents key results of a ten-year study of media coverage of agricultural biotechnology in the Philippines, the only country in Asia to date to approve a biotech food/feed crop (Bt corn) for commercialization. The top three national English newspapers – Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Philippine Star were analyzed to determine patterns of media attention measured by coverage peaks, tone, source of news, keywords, and media frames used. Biotechnology news was generally positive but not high in the media agenda. News coverage was marked by occasional peaks brought about by drama and controversial events which triggered attention but not long enough to sustain interest. The study provides a glimpse into the role of mass media in a developing country context. It shows how a complex and contentious topic is integrated into the mainstream of news reporting, and eventually evolves from an emotional discourse to one that allows informed decision making. http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29A01/ ********** Media framing of stem cell research: a cross-national analysis of political representation of science between the UK and South Korea Leo Kim This paper compares opinion-leading newspapers’ frames of stem cell research in the UK and South Korea from 2000 to 2008. The change of news frames, studied by semantic network analysis, in three critical periods (2000-2003/2004-2005/2006-2008) shows the media’s representative strategies in privileging news topics and public sentiments. Both political and national identity represented by each media outlet play a crucial role in framing scientific issues. A news frame that objectifies medical achievements and propagates a popular hope evolves as a common discourse in The Telegraph and The Guardian, with expanded issues that both incorporate and keep in check social concerns. South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo follows the frame of objectified science with a strong economic motivation, while Hankyoreh remains critical of the ‘Hwang scandal’ and tempers its scientific interest with broader political concerns. http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29A02/ ********** Public understanding of environment and bioenergy resources Gauhar Raza, P.V.S. Kumar, Surjit Singh There exists a distinct disconnect between scientists’ perception of nature and people’s worldview. This ‘disconnect’ though has dialectical relationship with science communication processes which, causes impediments in the propagation of scientific ideas. Those ideas, which are placed at large cultural distance, do not easily become a part of cognitive structure of a common citizen or peoples thought complex. Low level of public understanding of bio-energy technologies is one such sphere of understanding. The present study is based on assumption that public debate on bio-energy is part of the larger human concern about climate change. In this paper we present meta-analyses from published literature and take a look at the surveys that have been carried out at national and international level. In the second section of the article we also present analysis of the survey study carried out in India and locate the shifts in public understanding of science. http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29A03/ ********** A pilot project to encourage scientific debate in schools. Comics written and peer reviewed by young learners Giovanni Lo Iacono, Adélia S.A.T. de Paula Comprehension of the nature and practice of science and its social context are important aspects of communicating and learning science. However there is still very little understanding amongt the non-scientific community of the need for debate in driving scientific knowledge forward and the role of critical scrutiny in quality control. Peer review is an essential part of this process. We initiated and developed a pilot project to provide an opportunity for students to explore the idea that science is a dynamic process rather than a static body of facts. Students from two different schools experienced the process of peer-review by producing and reviewing comics related to the science done at Rothamsted Research. As authors, students showed a large degree of creativity and understanding of the science while as referees they showed good critical skills. Students had at first hand an insight into how science works. http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29A04/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ COMMENT Know your genes. The marketing of direct-to-consumer genetic testing Alessandro Delfanti Genetic testing promises to put the ability to decide about our life choices in our hands, as well as help solve crucial health problems by preventing the insurgence of diseases. But what happens when these exams are managed by private companies in a free market? Public communication and marketing have proven to be crucial battlefields on which companies companies need to engage in order to emerge. This issue of JCOM tries to shed some light on the communication and marketing practices used by private companies that sell direct-to-consumer genetic testing, from single genetic mutations to whole genome sequencing. http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29C01/ ********** Predictive or preposterous? The marketing of DTC genetic testing Timothy Caulfield Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing has generated a great deal of social controversy. While the degree to which DTC testing actually causes harm remains uncertain, there is a consensus that the information provided by these companies should be accurate. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Indeed, there are misrepresentations associated with all forms of testing, be it for superficial cosmetic services, athletic ability or disease predisposition. Countering this phenomenon will require a wide range of actions, including the use of formal regulatory mechanisms, the education of primary healthcare providers (in order to give them the tools necessary to advise patients and respond to questions) and more aggressive action by the genetic research community. http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29C01/Jcom1003%282011%29C... **********
From symptomatic to pre-symptomatic patient: the tide of personal genomics
Marina Levina, Roswell Quinn Personal Genomics Companies are an emerging form of biotechnology startup that bring rapidly advancing whole genome technologies to a variety of commercial venues. With a combination of direct-to-consumer marketing, social media, and Web 2.0 applications these companies seek to create novel uses, including entertainment, for what is described as predictive medicine – that is the use of genetic marketers to create health forecasts that would allow individual’s healthcare to be tailored to their individual genomic data. In this brief piece, the authors use a critical cultural approach to question how this combination of genomics research, marketing, and communications technologies may alter both patient experiences and research processes. In it we argue these companies radically expand the definition of a patient by claiming all consumers are simply pre-symptomatic patients. Moreover, by placing genomic data on both the marketplace and cyberspace, personal genomic companies see k to create new avenues of research that alter how we define (and access) research agendas and human subjects. Therefore, beyond commonly discussed issues of ethics and privacy rights, Personal Genomics has the potential to alter both healthcare priorities and distribution. http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29C01/Jcom1003%282011%29C... ********** Of deterritorialization, healthism and biosocialities: the companies' marketing and users' experiences of online genetics Pascal Ducournau, Claire Beaudevin Since the early 2000s, anybody can buy genetic tests, directly sold on the Internet. These tests provide information about susceptibilities to some diseases and/or about ancestry. Thus, this article deals with a new e-market, whose scientific basis (validity of the tests) and status (as medical devices or consumer goods) are currently controversial. On one hand, we describe the tests and the advertisement and marketing strategies used by the companies (we made an inventory of about 40); on the other hand, we discuss several aspects on the basis of interviews conducted with users: first, the entanglement of these strategies with the global context of healthism and the emphasis put on individuals’ empowerment regarding health decisions — “individualized biopolitics”. In addition, this article broaches the new kind of biosocial networks appearing in these tests’ wake: some users indeed gather on the basis of a genetic proximity, as is it put forward by their results. http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29C01/Jcom1003%282011%29C... ********** DCGT: the individual's benefits above all Donato Ramani, Chiara Saviane Easy, cheap, efficient as online service often are. Direct to Consumer Genetic Testing (DCGT) represents a big evolution towards personalised medicine. If the phenomenon seems to be unstoppable, the first aim of its present and future developments should be the customers’ benefits. A certified quality of the services provided, a clear communication and a well-structured support to customers should be the critical conditions that could transform those online services in something really important: for the individual’s health and the society as a whole. http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29C01/Jcom1003%282011%29C... ********** Genomics' problem of communication Jenny Reardon Since opening their doors in late 2006, personal genomics (PG) companies have faced skepticism and criticism from influential academic and government circles. While this has posed a clear problem of communication for these companies — one of effective promotion — I argue that the communication problem these companies face runs much deeper. It is a problem that lies at the heart of any genomics: the very understanding of communication and information around which genomics is built. While the value of genomic information for persons has been widely questioned, questions about the very notion of information that undergirds the production of genomic information rarely, if ever, has been broached. I suggest that making significant inroads into the vexing debates about PG would be greatly aided by addressing these more fundamental questions about the nature of information, and its genomic qualities. http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29C01/Jcom1003%282011%29C... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ REVIEW A reference for science communication Marina Ramalho e Silva S. Hornig Priest (ed.), Enciclopedia of Sicence and Technology Communitaction, Sage Publications Inc. (2010) http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29R01/ -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
ok, will do ASAP! ciao a
Dear friends,
I have no time right now because of my trip, but it would be really great if someone could announce the issue, with focus on the articles on genomics ...
Alessandro, I know you don't like to present your own article, but perhaps by pointing to the totality of the genomics articles?
Michel
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 5:05 PM Subject: JCOM 10(3) - new issue - September 2011 To: [email protected]
Dear all, we announce that the September 2011 issue of JCOM - Journal of Science Communication - (issue 3, volume 10)
is online.
Comments, remarks and papers by you are kindly requested.
Next issue will be online on the 21st December 2011.
CONTENTS: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ARTICLE
Print media reportage of agricultural biotechnology in the Philippines: a decade’s (2000-2009) analysis of news coverage and framing
Mariechel J. Navarro, Jenny A. Panopio, Donna Bae Malayang, Noel Amano Jr.
This article presents key results of a ten-year study of media coverage of agricultural biotechnology in the Philippines, the only country in Asia to date to approve a biotech food/feed crop (Bt corn) for commercialization. The top three national English newspapers – Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Philippine Star were analyzed to determine patterns of media attention measured by coverage peaks, tone, source of news, keywords, and media frames used. Biotechnology news was generally positive but not high in the media agenda. News coverage was marked by occasional peaks brought about by drama and controversial events which triggered attention but not long enough to sustain interest. The study provides a glimpse into the role of mass media in a developing country context. It shows how a complex and contentious topic is integrated into the mainstream of news reporting, and eventually evolves from an emotional discourse to one that allows informed decision making.
http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29A01/
**********
Media framing of stem cell research: a cross-national analysis of political representation of science between the UK and South Korea
Leo Kim
This paper compares opinion-leading newspapers’ frames of stem cell research in the UK and South Korea from 2000 to 2008. The change of news frames, studied by semantic network analysis, in three critical periods (2000-2003/2004-2005/2006-2008) shows the media’s representative strategies in privileging news topics and public sentiments. Both political and national identity represented by each media outlet play a crucial role in framing scientific issues. A news frame that objectifies medical achievements and propagates a popular hope evolves as a common discourse in The Telegraph and The Guardian, with expanded issues that both incorporate and keep in check social concerns. South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo follows the frame of objectified science with a strong economic motivation, while Hankyoreh remains critical of the ‘Hwang scandal’ and tempers its scientific interest with broader political concerns.
http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29A02/
**********
Public understanding of environment and bioenergy resources
Gauhar Raza, P.V.S. Kumar, Surjit Singh
There exists a distinct disconnect between scientists’ perception of nature and people’s worldview. This ‘disconnect’ though has dialectical relationship with science communication processes which, causes impediments in the propagation of scientific ideas. Those ideas, which are placed at large cultural distance, do not easily become a part of cognitive structure of a common citizen or peoples thought complex. Low level of public understanding of bio-energy technologies is one such sphere of understanding. The present study is based on assumption that public debate on bio-energy is part of the larger human concern about climate change. In this paper we present meta-analyses from published literature and take a look at the surveys that have been carried out at national and international level. In the second section of the article we also present analysis of the survey study carried out in India and locate the shifts in public understanding of science.
http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29A03/
**********
A pilot project to encourage scientific debate in schools. Comics written and peer reviewed by young learners
Giovanni Lo Iacono, Adélia S.A.T. de Paula
Comprehension of the nature and practice of science and its social context are important aspects of communicating and learning science. However there is still very little understanding amongt the non-scientific community of the need for debate in driving scientific knowledge forward and the role of critical scrutiny in quality control. Peer review is an essential part of this process. We initiated and developed a pilot project to provide an opportunity for students to explore the idea that science is a dynamic process rather than a static body of facts. Students from two different schools experienced the process of peer-review by producing and reviewing comics related to the science done at Rothamsted Research. As authors, students showed a large degree of creativity and understanding of the science while as referees they showed good critical skills. Students had at first hand an insight into how science works.
http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29A04/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMENT
Know your genes. The marketing of direct-to-consumer genetic testing
Alessandro Delfanti
Genetic testing promises to put the ability to decide about our life choices in our hands, as well as help solve crucial health problems by preventing the insurgence of diseases. But what happens when these exams are managed by private companies in a free market? Public communication and marketing have proven to be crucial battlefields on which companies companies need to engage in order to emerge. This issue of JCOM tries to shed some light on the communication and marketing practices used by private companies that sell direct-to-consumer genetic testing, from single genetic mutations to whole genome sequencing.
http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29C01/
**********
Predictive or preposterous? The marketing of DTC genetic testing
Timothy Caulfield
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing has generated a great deal of social controversy. While the degree to which DTC testing actually causes harm remains uncertain, there is a consensus that the information provided by these companies should be accurate. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Indeed, there are misrepresentations associated with all forms of testing, be it for superficial cosmetic services, athletic ability or disease predisposition. Countering this phenomenon will require a wide range of actions, including the use of formal regulatory mechanisms, the education of primary healthcare providers (in order to give them the tools necessary to advise patients and respond to questions) and more aggressive action by the genetic research community.
http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29C01/Jcom1003%282011%29C...
**********
From symptomatic to pre-symptomatic patient: the tide of personal genomics
Marina Levina, Roswell Quinn
Personal Genomics Companies are an emerging form of biotechnology startup that bring rapidly advancing whole genome technologies to a variety of commercial venues. With a combination of direct-to-consumer marketing, social media, and Web 2.0 applications these companies seek to create novel uses, including entertainment, for what is described as predictive medicine – that is the use of genetic marketers to create health forecasts that would allow individual’s healthcare to be tailored to their individual genomic data. In this brief piece, the authors use a critical cultural approach to question how this combination of genomics research, marketing, and communications technologies may alter both patient experiences and research processes. In it we argue these companies radically expand the definition of a patient by claiming all consumers are simply pre-symptomatic patients. Moreover, by placing genomic data on both the marketplace and cyberspace, personal genomic companies see k to create new avenues of research that alter how we define (and access) research agendas and human subjects. Therefore, beyond commonly discussed issues of ethics and privacy rights, Personal Genomics has the potential to alter both healthcare priorities and distribution.
http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29C01/Jcom1003%282011%29C...
**********
Of deterritorialization, healthism and biosocialities: the companies' marketing and users' experiences of online genetics
Pascal Ducournau, Claire Beaudevin
Since the early 2000s, anybody can buy genetic tests, directly sold on the Internet. These tests provide information about susceptibilities to some diseases and/or about ancestry. Thus, this article deals with a new e-market, whose scientific basis (validity of the tests) and status (as medical devices or consumer goods) are currently controversial. On one hand, we describe the tests and the advertisement and marketing strategies used by the companies (we made an inventory of about 40); on the other hand, we discuss several aspects on the basis of interviews conducted with users: first, the entanglement of these strategies with the global context of healthism and the emphasis put on individuals’ empowerment regarding health decisions — “individualized biopolitics”. In addition, this article broaches the new kind of biosocial networks appearing in these tests’ wake: some users indeed gather on the basis of a genetic proximity, as is it put forward by their results.
http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29C01/Jcom1003%282011%29C...
**********
DCGT: the individual's benefits above all
Donato Ramani, Chiara Saviane
Easy, cheap, efficient as online service often are. Direct to Consumer Genetic Testing (DCGT) represents a big evolution towards personalised medicine. If the phenomenon seems to be unstoppable, the first aim of its present and future developments should be the customers’ benefits. A certified quality of the services provided, a clear communication and a well-structured support to customers should be the critical conditions that could transform those online services in something really important: for the individual’s health and the society as a whole.
http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29C01/Jcom1003%282011%29C...
**********
Genomics' problem of communication
Jenny Reardon
Since opening their doors in late 2006, personal genomics (PG) companies have faced skepticism and criticism from influential academic and government circles. While this has posed a clear problem of communication for these companies — one of effective promotion — I argue that the communication problem these companies face runs much deeper. It is a problem that lies at the heart of any genomics: the very understanding of communication and information around which genomics is built. While the value of genomic information for persons has been widely questioned, questions about the very notion of information that undergirds the production of genomic information rarely, if ever, has been broached. I suggest that making significant inroads into the vexing debates about PG would be greatly aided by addressing these more fundamental questions about the nature of information, and its genomic qualities.
http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29C01/Jcom1003%282011%29C...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
REVIEW
A reference for science communication
Marina Ramalho e Silva
S. Hornig Priest (ed.), Enciclopedia of Sicence and Technology Communitaction, Sage Publications Inc. (2010)
http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/10/03/Jcom1003%282011%29R01/
-- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
-- Alessandro Delfanti ICS, Innovations in the Communication of Science Sissa, Trieste, Italy [email protected] http://people.sissa.it/~delfanti/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- SISSA Webmail https://webmail.sissa.it/ Powered by Horde http://www.horde.org/
participants (2)
-
Alessandro Delfanti -
Michel Bauwens