La scienza e i mass media : la fusione fredda nei quotidiani italiani / Massimiano Bucchi.
Abstract:
The cold fusion case has been portrayed by several observers as an example of pathological science and in particular of the pathological relationship between science and the media. The article addresses this contention critically. Cold fusion has not just been a case of misrepresentation or sensationalization of science by the media. A richer and more complex role of the media is to be acknowledged, since a considerable part (namely, the first phase) of the controversy was actually played out within the public arena. In such a case the contribution of this communicative level to the shaping of a scientific issue cannot be underestimated and should not be simply conceptualized in terms of an additive operation (a charge of emphasis and distortion) as it is traditionally maintained)