Nanotechnology and the Media: Realities and Risk
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
WASHINGTON – Nanotechnology is in the marketplace—in cars, computer chips and cosmetics. It’s featured in popular films and sci-fi books. It’s trendy with venture capitalists, and it’s at the heart of major industry and university research centers.
But how is nanotechnology covered in the media? Does the press propagate nano-hype? Do journalists focus more on nano’s risks than its benefits? Is the content and quality of U.S. reporting on nanotech similar to reporting abroad?
These questions are the topic of a program hosted by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies on Wednesday, December 14th at 9:00 a.m. in the 5th Floor Conference Room of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Speakers include:
Andrew Laing, President, Cormex Research, a leading media content and analysis company, who has studied nanotechnology newspaper coverage in the U.S. and Canada on behalf of the Canadian government.
Sharon M. Friedman, Professor and Director of the Science & Environmental Writing Program, Lehigh University (Pennsylvania), who has compared American and British newspaper and wire service coverage of nanotechnology’s potential health and environmental risks recently in an article co-authored with Brenda Egolf in IEEE Technology and Society.
Julia A. Moore, Deputy Director, Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies
Background Reading Material:
A report on Canadian and American news media coverage of nanotechnology issues
Nanotechnology Risks and the Media
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