Cloning in the news : an analysis of how the science and ethics of cloning are reported in three daily newspapers of Cape Town

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Background: Cloning is a topic that has long fascinated people. It has imbeddeditself into popular culture, but studies show that the general public has, at best, only avague understanding of what cloning entails. Alternatively, their perception has beenskewed by that very same popular culture. However, cloning is a complex scientificsubject that has considerable ethical implications. It is the kind of topic that people ina deliberate democracy should know about. The media play an important role in theeducation of the public with regards to science and technology. However, the mediahave the potential to do more than provide the basic facts. In fact, the media can playan important role in influencing the actions and opinions of the public. It is therefore aresponsibility of the media to provide accurate information on scientificdevelopments, such as cloning.Objective: An analysis of three daily newspapers in the Western Cape was carriedout to determine how cloning is reported. The broad topics addressed were whetherthe coverage focused on the ethical or scientific aspects of cloning, if the subject wasreported in a positive or negative tone, and whether the science of cloning wasadequately explained.Methodology: A quantitative content analysis was completed of a sample of 69articles. These articles were all those relating to cloning that appeared in three dailynewspapers (Cape Argus, Cape Times and Die Burger) over a period of one yearfrom 10 November 2002 to 10 November 2003.Findings: Of all the articles analysed 34% focused on the scientific aspects, 21%focused on the ethical aspects, 6% focused on both ethics and science, while 39%focused on neither. Fifty two percent of articles dealing specifically with animalcloning focused on the science, while only 4% focused on the ethics. However, inarticles dealing specifically with human cloning, more (30%) emphasised ethicalaspects than scientific aspects (20%). With regards to tone of coverage, 32% of allthe articles analysed were positive, 28% negative, and 40% neutral. Sixty percent ofarticles dealing specifically with animal cloning featured a positive tone, while only13% of articles exclusively about human cloning had a positive tone. This 13% wascomprised of articles on therapeutic rather than reproductive cloning. In terms ofexplaining the science associated with cloning, only 30% of articles provided an explicit explanation. Potential threats to the accuracy of explaining science werefound to exist.Conclusions: While the overall findings were somewhat indistinct it seemed thatwhen the media of the Western Cape reported on the cloning of animals it was donewith a positive tone and emphasised the scientific aspects. Reporting on humancloning tended to feature a negative tone and emphasised the ethical aspects. Thelarge number of 'neutral' results for both the 'tone' and 'science or ethics' variablescould indicate that the media were wishing to remain neutral. However, the largenumber of neutral articles relating to the 'science or ethics' variable could have anegative impact on public understanding. The small number of articles explainingcloning and an emphasis on 'breakthrough' news stories could also have a negativeimpact on public understanding.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University