Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
June 2000 saw the triumphal announcement of the completion of the human genome ‘working draft’. This attracted extensive, peak and vivid coverage. While several studies have media coverage of the announcement, there has been little discussion of the production: the overall aims, values and structures which underpinned this staged event. This redresses this gap and draws on ten interviews with UK journalists and their sources to how reporting was influenced by a number of factors, including news values, identity, the history of reporting and editorial interest. This paper thus gives insights into how science stories are ‘made’ and presented in terms of the dynamics of. It reveals the ways in which political and economic factors may drive a science story provides crucial insights into the key relationships which influence and shape media of scientific research.
Henderson et al. (2007) studied this question.