SUMMARY

The aim of the project is to investigate public discourses of modern biotechnology and the relations between the media and other actors. The project is divided into three problem areas that will be investigated in separate case studies: 1) metaphors and the representation of biotechnology, 2) the representation of the public, and 3) diverse publics and making sense of mediated narratives. The first study aims to identify national narratives of biotechnology, the metaphors on which they are based and the way they have been constructed historically. The second part deals with questions of how the public is addressed in the media and how this is reflected in different political cultures. The third part focuses on how different publics discuss modern biotechnology and how they use the media in everyday contexts.

We are interested not only in the contents and forms of media representation but also, as the mediatization thesis suggests, in the social and cultural role of the media in society. The media as an institution can best be understood in and through its dealings with other institutions. The rise of various forms of gene talk in the media provides an interesting case for a study of the interactions and power relations between the actors and institutions of the media, science, technology, economy and politics.

Previous studies suggest that biotechnology has been promoted in Finland as a national project leading towards an innovative information society. According to the Eurobarometer survey, people in Finland take the most positive attitude towards biotechnology and consider it less risky than most other Europeans. Our aim is to study the national narratives of biotechnology and the role of the media in constructing these images and narratives.

Theoretically, the project is grounded in our previous research on the role of metaphors as mediating devices in communicating scientific, technical and environmental issues in the public discourse. The project will employ methods of quantitative and qualitative textual analysis to study different actors and representations of biotechnology; and focus group interviews to study public perceptions of biotechnology and the role of the media in the context of everyday life.