Kate O'Riordan

Maureen McNeil

Jenny Kitzinger

Joan Haran

This book provides an intensive exploration of recent popular representations of human cloning, genetics and the concerns which they generate and mobilise. It is a timely contribution to current debates about the public communication of science and about the cultural and political stakes in those debates. Taking the UK as its main case study, with cross-cultural comparisons with the USA and South Korea, the book explores the proposition that genomics is ‘the publicly mediated science par excellence’, through detailed reference to the rhetoric and images around human reproductive and therapeutic cloning which have proliferated in the wake of the ‘completion’ of the Human Genome Project (2000). The book offers a set of distinctive analyses of media and cultural texts – including press and television news, Hollywood and independent film drama, documentaries, art exhibits and websites – and in dialogue with the producers and consumers of these texts. From these investigations, key issues are foregrounded: the image of the scientist, scientific expertise and institutions; the governance of science; the representation of women’s bodies as the subjects and objects of biotechnology; and the constitution of publics, both as objects of media debate, and as their intended audience. This examination demonstrates the importance of mediation, media institutions, and media texts in the production of scientific knowledge. Countering models that see ‘the media’ as simply a channel through which scientific knowledge passes, this book will emphasise the importance of communications technologies in the production of modern scientific knowledge and their particular significance in contemporary genomics. It will argue that human genomic science – and cloning as its current iconic manifestation – has to be understood as a complex cultural production.

Human Cloning in the Media

Rosaline Barbour

This book critically examines the potential of, and suggests ways forward in, harnessing a versatile and powerful method of research - focus groups. The book challenges some of the emerging orthodoxies and presents accessible, insightful and reflective discussions about the issues around focus group work. The contributors, an impressive group of experienced researchers from a range of disciplines and traditions, discuss different ways of designing, conducting and analyzing focus group research. They examine sampling strategies; the implications of combining focus groups with other methods; accessing views of `minority′ groups; their contribution to participatory or feminist research; use of software packages; discourse analysis; and the epistemological and political underpinnings of research.

Politics, Theory and Practice

Developing Focus Group Research

David Miller

Peter Beharrell

This book moves beyond the narrow focus of much of the work on media and cultural studies to examine the whole process of interaction between the media and the social world. Rejecting approaches which focus only on ownership or discourse or audience reception, this new book from the Glasgow Media Group, examines: promotional strategies; media production; representation and audience responses; as well as broader impacts on policy, culture and society. Using a detailed analysis of the struggle over representation during the AIDS crisis as point of departure, The Circuit of Mass Communication reveals the power of the media to influence public opinion, and the complex interaction between media coverage, audience response and contemporary power relations. Based on extensive empirical research, this book offers a range of challenging insights on media power, active audiences and moral panics.

Media Strategies, Representation and Audience Reception in the AIDS Crisis

The Circuit of Mass Communication

Jenny Kitzinger

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