To a great extent mass media structures social communication processes. Therefore, media contents are an important condition for participation in modern societies. This holds true for both, the public and politicians or scientists. Hence, for policy makers the media plays a decisive role not only when election campaigns take place. The research about political communication until now prior dealt with the question of how political actors interact with mass media to communicate their messages. In contrast, it is hardly investigated which meaning press coverage has got for political decisions. The research project deals in the two scientific fields “stem-cell research” and “public health and epidemiology” with the core question how policy makers use and handle press coverage. Special attention is paid to the meaning of scientific knowledge communicated via the (mass) media regarding political decisions.

The research project is part of the research cooperation “Integration of Scientific Expertise into Media-based Public Discourses (INWEDIS)”. Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Hans Peter Peters from the Research Center Jülich the interrelation of science, media, scientific public relations and political decisions is investigated in four survey-parts.

Cooperation Partners:

Dr. Suzanne de Cheveigné, CNRS, Marseille, France
SHADYC – Sociologie, histoire, anthropologie des dynamiques culturelles (EHESS- CNRS)
Prof. Sharon Dunwoody, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
School of Journalism & Mass Communication
Prof. Winfried Göpfert, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Department of Science Journalism
Prof. Steve Miller, University College London, Great Britain
Science and Technology Studies
Prof. Shoji Tsuchida, Kansai University, Osaka, Japan
Department of Psychology