Science-Media Interface

An international mail survey of 1,354 biomedical researchers in five countries has revealed that interaction with the media is widespread among this group and that this interaction is largely perceived in a positive light. Possible reasons are offered as to why the perception persists that the scientist-journalist relationship remains troubled, despite the apparent reality. This reality may have negative as well as positive implications; the potential for too much control by the scientific community of media coverage about it, as well as that for too much media influence on inner-scientific processes, are also addressed.