This title appears in the Scientific Report :
2010
Please use the identifier:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0162243909357914 in citations.
Mass-mediated expertise as informal policy advice
Mass-mediated expertise as informal policy advice
Scientific policy advice is usually perceived as a formalized advisory process within political institutions. Politics has benefited from this arrangement because the science-based rationalization of policy has contributed to its legitimacy. However, in Western democratic societies, scientific exper...
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Personal Name(s): | Petersen, I. |
---|---|
Heinrichs, H. / Peters, H. P. | |
Contributing Institute: |
Ethik in den Neurowissenschaften; INM-8 |
Published in: | Science, technology, & human values, 35 (2010) S. 865 - 887 |
Imprint: |
London
Sage Publ.
2010
|
Physical Description: |
865 - 887 |
DOI: |
10.1177/0162243909357914 |
Document Type: |
Journal Article |
Research Program: |
Techniken, Innovation und Gesellschaft (TIG) |
Series Title: |
Science, Technology, and Human Values
35 |
Publikationsportal JuSER |
Scientific policy advice is usually perceived as a formalized advisory process within political institutions. Politics has benefited from this arrangement because the science-based rationalization of policy has contributed to its legitimacy. However, in Western democratic societies, scientific expertise that is routinely mobilized to legitimate political positions has increasingly lost its power due to controversial expertise in the public sphere in particular within the mass media. As a consequence of the medialization of science, political decision makers are increasingly confronted with mass-mediated expertise. Empirical results of a qualitative survey among decision makers in the German political and administrative system, presented in this article, support the hypothesis that mass-mediated expertise has a significant impact on policy processes. Five functions of media coverage on science-based issues for policy making were identified. Mass-mediated expertise has therefore altered the established relations between scientific policy advisors and political decision makers and can be seen as informal policy advice complementing institutionalized advisory arrangements. |