All hype, no risk in nano media coverage

By Jason Major

Techyou

A US study has found scant media coverage of the potential risks posed by nanotechnology, with many more articles extolling its future benefits.

This article and report looks at the possible reasons why this is so, but the point I want to make is based on a couple of quotes from  Robin Williams, director of the Research Centre for Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, UK. He says, “there is no proof that a greater discussion of the assumed risks in the media today will lead to nanotechnology being better accepted and understood in future. Efforts to outline nanotechnology’s potential risks or benefits ahead of time are beset by pitfalls and will not necessarily avert public controversy.

There is little evidence that public involvement, and in particular upstream involvement in science and technology, will lead to smoother, more socially beneficial and acceptable technology development.”

Wrong!

Public engagement, and where possible and practical, upstream engagement, is what TechNyou is all about. Has Robin missed the point? From my perspective, at least, the reason to engage the public about this science early and have them discuss the scientific, social, economic and ethical risks and benefits of this science and consequent technologies is to work out what are the acceptable ways to use this knowledge. It has nothing to do with trying to avert public controversy or make the science and technology more palatable or acceptable.  If society finds the specific use of a particular technology unacceptable, or it sparks debate, so be it. That is part of an informed and probably healthy discussion. We can hardly make that decision based on media reports that only focus on over-hyped benefits of a technology, not that we should rely on the media as our sole source of info for this sort of thing, at least not those actively participating in the debate.

Now it is possible, even likely, that these quotes of Robin’s are out of context and he actually agrees with what I just said, but that is the nature of the media.