Mass Media and Technology

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, when presenting material about science and technology, mass media (1) treats its audience as if they were elementary school children so that science still retained its 'sacred status', (2) judiciously ignores the social, cultural and political factors of the world in which the 'great discovery' was made and (3) avoids any reference to what made the individual scientist and individual. The author includes in the paper the growing impact of the internet as mass media on society today and points out that this information technology is rapidly evolving into a continuous spectrum of tools and methods for the creation, delivery and presentation of information on a personal basis. The paper concludes that what has separated man from other animals has been neither his ability to communicate nor his ability to use tools but his ability to use tools to communicate in a cultural context.

From the Paper:

"Given that science is difficult to separate from scientism, Gardner and Young conclude in their article, they would like to see the domain of science opened up in three ways. First they would like to know what forces evoke the questions, frameworks and specific priorities of science. How does man frame the manifold of nature in the ways he does? For them this could include questions as to why biology uses its taxonomy structure to who paid for the grant for the project.
Second they would like to see discussion of the labor process of the production of science, technology and medicine. What is the social or managerial process behind the production of knowledge and research?"

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