Interpreting Media Images of Science and Technology

The way science and technology are represented in the mass media is probably the most significant influence on the way in which the public views science. Whilst different mass media representations of science have been studied extensively, there is a need 10 take into account the manner in which general features of media discourse affect specific portrayals of science. This paper examines three such features: the constraints imposed by the institutional determinants of media practice; the surface-level experience by consumers of media representations of science as a flow of disparate and disconnected images; and an underlying unified discourse centred on the symbolic meanings of commodity consumption. It is argued that images of science and technology in the mass media are embedded within this flow of commodity images which signify an enduring myth of modernity. Rather than creating a more scientifically literate community, such images reinforce a 'commodity scientism' which paradoxically further alienates people from an understanding of science as a critical investigation of the world.