Determinism and mass-media portrayals of genetics

被引:73
作者
Condit, CM [1 ]
Ofulue, N [1 ]
Sheedy, KM [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Georgia, Dept Speech Commun, Athens, GA 30602 USA
关键词
D O I
10.1086/301784
中图分类号
Q3 [遗传学];
学科分类号
071007 ; 090102 ;
摘要
Scholars have expressed concern that the introduction of substantial coverage of "medical genetics" in the mass media during the past 2 decades represents an increase in biological determinism in public discourse. To test this contention, we analyzed the contents of a randomly selected, structured sample of American public newspapers (n = 250) and magazines (n = 722) published during 1919-95. Three coders, using three measures, all with interceder reliability >85%, were employed. Results indicate that the introduction of the discourse of medical genetics is correlated with both a statistically significant decrease in the degree to which articles attribute human characteristics to genetic causes (P < .001) and a statistically significant increase in the differentiation of attributions to genetic and other causes among various conditions or outcomes (P < .016). There has been no statistically significant change in the relative proportions of physical phenomena attributed to genetic causes, but there has been a statistically significant decrease in the number of articles assigning genetic causes to mental (P < .002) and behavioral (P < .000) characteristics. These results suggest that the current discourse of medical genetics is not accurately described as more biologically deterministic than its antecedents.
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页码:979 / 984
页数:6
相关论文
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