The framing of nanotechnologies in the British newspaper press

Anderson, Alison; Allan, Stuart; Petersen, Alan; Wilkinson, Clare

Abstract

This article investigates how developments in nanotechnology were framed in the British national newspaper press during a formative period in their rising public salience. Specifically, an intervention by Prince Charles in April 2003 is shown to have acted as the principal catalyst for much of the ensuing newspaper reporting over the next fifteen months. This study, in taking as its focus the operation of specific news frames, identifies a range of factors that shaped the initial terms of the subsequent debate (between both advocates and critics of nanotechnology) from one newspaper to the next during this period. The analysis suggests that the involvement of a celebrity may play a crucial role in enhancing the newsworthiness of an issue and influencing its subsequent framing in the newspaper press. © 2005 Sage Publications.

Citation

Anderson, A., Allan, S., Petersen, A., & Wilkinson, C. (2005). The framing of nanotechnologies in the British newspaper press. Science Communication, 27(2), 200-220. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547005281472

• Journal Article Type: Conference Paper
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2005
• Journal: Science Communication
• Print ISSN: 1075-5470
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 27
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 200-220
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547005281472
• Keywords: nanotechnology, science journalism, news frames, news sources, celebrity, science fiction
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1045873
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1075547005281472
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This output originated from an ESRC funded project, Nanotechnology and News Production, conducted between 2004 and 2005 and based at the University of Plymouth. The article was based on a peer-reviewed conference paper �Textual Representations of Nanotechnology in the UK Press's presented at the 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting, Washington DC at which the co-authors were invited to submit an article to a special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Science Communication focusing on nanotechnologies. The special issue included contributions from international scholars and was one of the first to focus on the social and ethical implications associated with nanotechnologies. As the Research Fellow on this project, Wilkinson contributed to the data collection and analysis for this article, and presented the conference paper at the AAAS 2005 Annual Meeting in Washington. Each author, including Wilkinson, contributed to the drafts of the final article in full. At the time of the publication, the authors were one of only two groups working on the specific area of nanotechnology media coverage in the UK. The paper has since been cited by at least nine other journal articles published in journals including Sociological Research Online, New Genetics and Society and Science as Culture (see Cooper and Ebeling, 2007; Henderson, 2007; Te Kulve, 2006).