[P2P-F] Fwd: JCOM 10(3) - new issue - September 2011

Thu Sep 22 08:45:39 CEST 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: <jcom-eo at jcom.sissa.it>
Date: Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 5:05 PM
Subject: JCOM 10(3) - new issue - September 2011
To: michelsub2004 at gmail.com

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%29C02

**********

>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%29C03

**********

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%29C04

**********

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%29C05

**********

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%29C06

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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/

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