Paper prepared for the BSA Annual Conference: A Sociological Odyssey 9 th -12 th April 2001 Page 1 Correspondence to Dr. Richard Holliman, Centre for Science Education, Faculty of Science, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA. Email: R.M.Holliman@open.ac.uk Media coverage of the Human Genome Project Richard Holliman, Claire Donovan, Eileen Scanlon, Simeon Yates and Hilary MacQueen 1. Abstract The recent announcement that a ‘working’ draft of the human genome sequence has been completed raises interesting questions about the representation of scientific research in the public sphere. This paper examines contemporary debates in the communication of scientific investigation through an empirical analysis of the UK national print media coverage of the announcement of the completion of a ‘working’ draft of the human genome sequence. The central questions that this presentation will address are: how was the scientific research on the human genome sequence portrayed by print media; which interviewees and sources were cited in the media coverage; how was the apparent conflict between the publicly-funded Human Genome Project (HGP) and Celera Genomics represented; and what was the role of specialist and non- specialist journalists in the coverage? The paper will conclude by considering the implications of media coverage of large scientific projects, such as the HGP, for the public understanding of science in the light of the recently published House of Lords Select Committee Report on and Technology Science (H.M.S.O. 2000b) and the Department of Trade and Industry’s White Paper, Excellence and Opportunity (H.M.S.O. 2000a). 2. Background Debate about whether and how to ‘map’ and ‘sequence’ the entire human genome can be traced back to discussions at scientific meetings in the mid-1980s (International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium 2001; Kevles and Hood 1992). Following these discussions, the Human Genome Project (HGP) was launched in America in 1990 via a plan published by the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health (cited in International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium 2001; and Bendall 2001). The HGP has been actively researching since 1992 (Coghlan and Le Page 2001) and is publicly funded 1 . During this time, it has been co-ordinated by the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) 2 (Davis 1990). This project has involved an international consortium of 20 groups of scientists and scientific institutions from Germany, France, China, Japan, the United States of America and the United Kingdom (International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium 2001). In May 1998, Dr. Craig Venter, president and chief scientific officer of Celera Genomics, a privately-funded biotechnology company, announced that it would complete the mapping and sequencing of the human genome by 2001, four years ahead of the then 1 We note that in some cases, such as the Sanger Centre near Cambridge which was partly funded by The Wellcome Trust, the HGP has also been substantially supported by charitable organisations. 2 HUGO had its formal inception in September 1988 (Davis 1990).