Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Resistance to new technology and its effects on nuclear power, information technology and biotechnology
- PART I Conceptual issues
- PART II Case studies
- PART III International comparisons
- PART IV Comparisons of different technologies
- 16 Learning from Chernobyl for the fight against genetics? Stages and stimuli of German protest movements – a comparative synopsis
- 17 Individual and institutional impacts upon press coverage of sciences: the case of nuclear power and genetic engineering in Germany
- 18 Forms of intrusion: comparing resistance to information technology and biotechnology in the USA
- PART V Afterword
- Index
17 - Individual and institutional impacts upon press coverage of sciences: the case of nuclear power and genetic engineering in Germany
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Resistance to new technology and its effects on nuclear power, information technology and biotechnology
- PART I Conceptual issues
- PART II Case studies
- PART III International comparisons
- PART IV Comparisons of different technologies
- 16 Learning from Chernobyl for the fight against genetics? Stages and stimuli of German protest movements – a comparative synopsis
- 17 Individual and institutional impacts upon press coverage of sciences: the case of nuclear power and genetic engineering in Germany
- 18 Forms of intrusion: comparing resistance to information technology and biotechnology in the USA
- PART V Afterword
- Index
Summary
Basic circumstances of new technologies
Criticism of technology is nothing new. For some years, however, this criticism has had a new quality. A brief look back demonstrates this. The development of road, rail and air traffic did not trigger any fundamental political debates, but rather occurred within the framework of administrative guidelines. Mass vaccination for numerous diseases, chlorination of drinking water and pasteurization of milk were introduced in a similar way, without any significant public debate concerning the advantages and disadvantages, which might have endangered these projects. In contrast, plans for the fluoridation of drinking water in the USA in the 1960s provoked intense public controversy, which already contained important elements of later disputes concerning nuclear power. This is true both for the structure of the conflict – the appearance of citizens' action groups who mustered their own experts, the turning of their actions into a current topic by the mass media, and the shifting of decisions to political institutions – and also for the type of arguments – the assertion that there was an invisible threat, that the whole population was in danger, and that there was a possibility of unrecognized long-term effects, etc. (Sapolsky 1968).
One fundamental reason for the changes mentioned may be the existence of social groups who intervene in politics in an unconventional manner and who find a platform for their criticism and demands in the mass media.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Resistance to New TechnologyNuclear Power, Information Technology and Biotechnology, pp. 357 - 378Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995
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