Biotechnology in press and public

Modern biotechnology includes re-combinative and reproductive techniques of genetic engineering, cloning, and fertilisation. These and other biotechnological applications have frequently turned into public issues over the last decades. Since the actual amount of people coming into direct contact with modern biotechnology to make up their own minds about it is limited, the definition or definitions of biotechnology that are set in the mass media, and especially the news media, are likely to be influential on public opinion. The main aim of this study was to analyse how opinion-leading news media in the United States, Germany, and Britain, choose to cover the biotechnology issue. A content analysis was conducted on news items about biotechnology published in the six opinion-leading newspapers Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), The Times, The Guardian, the New York Times (NYT) or the Washington Post (WP) in the three years of 2000–2002. The findings show that German coverage had a stronger political-ethical discourse, British coverage had a stronger public discourse, and U. S. coverage had a stronger scientific-economic discourse. In addition, the forming of public opinion was studied through secondary analysis of survey responses and comparisons were made between coverage and public opinion.