Beliefs About Science and News Frames in Audience Evaluations of Embryonic and Adult Stem Cell Research

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of demographic variables, beliefs about science, and news frames on ratings of ethics, credibility, and usefulness of embryonic and adult stem cell research. Framing affected only ratings of ethics, in interaction with type of stem cell, with a large difference between embryonic and adult stem cells in a political conflict frame and no difference in a scientific progress frame. Belief that science is neutral with respect to religion and morality was positively associated with ethics and usefulness ratings for embryonic research; frequency of religious attendance was positively associated with ethics, credibility, and usefulness ratings for adult research only. Humanities and social science majors tended to rate both the embryonic and adult research as more credible, as did participants with higher self-reported science interest and exposure. Quantitative analyses are supplemented with qualitative interview data.

GM Crops in Hungary: Comparing Mass Media Framing and Public Understanding of Technoscientific Controversy

“…Numerous previous studies have found some extent of empirical co-occurrence of media content/media use and public understanding of GM crops or other kinds of biotechnologies (Bauer, 2002(Bauer, , 2005aBesley & Shanahan, 2005;Ho et al, 2008;Hornig Priest, 1994;Hughes et al, 2008;Liu & Priest, 2009;Nisbet & Goidel, 2007;Stewart et al, 2009;Vilella-Vila & Costa-Font, 2008;Wagner & Kronberger, 2001;Wagner et al, 2002). The present paper intended to contribute to this body of literature among others by providing a case study from a country where the issue of GM crops was of lower salience in the media and lower on the public agenda than in the societies on which the earlier studies had focused.…”

“…A number of researchers from other countries have reported some kind of empirical relationship between media use and public understanding of biotechnologies -including GM as well as the red-green biotechnology distinction -even if not necessarily all media variables were significant, and even if differences were found between countries (Bauer, 2002(Bauer, , 2005aBesley & Shanahan, 2005;Ho, Brossard, & Scheufele, 2008;Hornig Priest, 1994;Hughes et al, 2008;Liu & Priest, 2009;Nisbet & Goidel, 2007;Stewart, Dickerson, & Hotchkiss, 2009;Vilella-Vila & Costa-Font, 2008;Wagner & Kronberger, 2001;Wagner, Kronberger, & Seifert, 2002). Many of these previous studies have concentrated on societies where there has been heated public debate on the GM controversy (Hughes, Kitzinger, & Murdock, 2008).…”

Framing Synthetic Biology

“…In communication studies, framing has been conceived of primarily as a general property of news coverage, as in the "issue responsibility" or "horse race" frames in political coverage (Iyengar, 1990), and as one of the three principal mechanisms that underpin media effects (Scheufele & Tewksbury, 2007). The specific theme that pervades a news article on biotechnology, for example, has been shown to influence public perceptions of areas like stem cell research, with a "Progress" frame leading to much more positive attitudes than a "Political Conflict" frame (Stewart, 2012;Stewart, Dickerson, & Hotchkiss, 2009).…”

Dynamic framing in the communication of scientific research: Texts and interactions

“…Likewise, Brewer and Gross (2005) found that exposure to focus on single values surrounding a policy issues-say equality in the school voucher debate-narrow people's thought to that one value while reducing the overall thinking about the issue. Science communication research of the frame setting variety examines the effect of various frames on individuals' opinions, understandings, and beliefs about specific scientific issues (Cobb, 2005;Stewart, Dickerson, & Hotchkiss, 2009). For example, Cobb (2005) had participants read one of nine different descriptions of nanotechnology research that each varied the salience of particular frames in research.…”