THE CHANGING IMAGE OF SCIENTISTS IN POST-WAR BRITAIN

THE LECTURE WILL DISCUSS THE IMAGE OF SCIENTISTS IN THE BRITISH MEDIA

This seminar is based on the ideas and empirical work from my PhD thesis, in which I have set out to contribute to two domains of literature: those concerned with the public understanding of science (PUS), and those concerned with the social meaning of the visual image. My aim was to augment Social Representation Theory with an exploration of the concept of the 'figurative nucleus', looking at the substantive subject of science and scientists. In looking at the representation of a group (that of scientists) I drew together diverse literature to consider different ways of making sense of PUS.

I conducted several empirical projects to look at changing representations of scientists: analysis of secondary data, interviews including a drawing task, an expert interview with a portrait photographer, and content analysis of newspaper images and popular science documentaries. These were conducted in an effort to data-triangulate - that is, to find a complex answer by using different sources of information. I have found that social imagery is part of a dynamic enterprise, that individuals and media have complex ways of representing, and discovered ambivalent stories and opinions about stereotypes.

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