Stories of the “medicine cow”: representations of future promises in media discourse

Abstract

This paper studies the changing media representations and public perceptions of biotechnology through a case study of the generation of transgenic cattle in Finland. The particular focus is on rhetoric of the future: the narrative shaping of future promises, the politics of naming, visual images, and the role of the news media in producing and circulating images of new genetics. It is suggested that scientists can play a dominant role in popularizing scientific and technological innovations by using positive metaphors and visual imagery of genetics.

Ajan hallinta ja tiivistyminen journalismissa

“…Tulevaisuusorientaation yleistyminen journalismissa näkyy esimerkiksi ympäris töongelmia (Väliverronen 1996) ja uutta teknologiaa käsittelevässä journalismissa (Väliverronen 2004;, ja se kertoo paitsi yleisemmistä yhteiskunnallisista ja ajattelutapoja koskevista muutoksista myös uutiskilpailusta. Koska menneestä tai nykyhetkestä on mahdollista tuottaa vain rajallinen määrä laajemmin kiinnosta via kertomuksia ja tulkintoja, mediat alkavat kilpailla myös tulevaisuutta koskevien ennusteiden esittämisessä.…”

Introduction: Biofutures/Biopresents

“…To do so the biofuture and its technoscientific remedy must be constituted in a specific way that not only reflects on the problem implicit within the biopresent, but also the inevitability and obviousness of the biofuture's solution. A biopresent that constructs certain diseases and disorders as major problems to be solved by specific technological treatments, results in a biofuture that justifies its solutions as revolutionary in order to legitimate the expenditure of resources (public and private) on specific activities and enrol multiple agendas (Väliverronen, 2004). Such claims, visions and expectations are an integral part of technoscientific development (Hedgecoe and Martin, 2003).…”

Re-examining medical modernization: framing the public in Finnish biomedical research policy

“…Both the written material and interviews were analyzed within the context of the sociology of expectations to highlight the strategies used to shape and order the information that is deemed important by experts, as well as enlist the support of readers of particular texts (see Myers, 1991;Douglas, 2005). The strategies of experts in biomedical research involving large human tissue sample collections are contextualized in light of increasing commercial expectations associated with such population information resources and their relation to the contexts in which new biomedical knowledge is being produced (Brown, 2003;Brown and Michael, 2003;Väliverronen, 2004).…”