Students, Science and the Media in Australia

A set of articles in Search has dealt with science and the media; for example, Parsons (1977) noted that scientists are generally dissatisfied with media coverage of science. A separate set of articles (in journals devoted to science education) has addressed the issue of students' perceptions of science and scientists; thus, MacDonald & Bridgstock (1982) examined the views of a sample of students at Griffith University, and found (as have many others) that the students' images are generally negative and stereotyped. More recently, however, attempts are being made to determine what relationships may exist between the presentation of science in the media on one hand and student perceptions of science and scientists on the other. That is, is it possible to draw causal inferences between images presented in the media and student images of science and scientists?