Science and marketing (2)

Gitte Meyer of the Danish Centre for Bioethics explains that the fundamental convention of science journalism is that of science transmission; science journalists should not concern themselves with questions of knowledge; reflection on such questions should be strictly confined within the scientific ......

From this description, it is fairly easy to spot what is similar between the convention and marketing: neither allows for sceptical and critical questions to be ......

The convention may be seen as an ..... to an old, unwritten contract between science and society.

That is, the at the same time ..... and pragmatic agreement that science was a valuable part of society by not being part of society: science was agreed to be, somehow, situated outside society.

Residing in a remote spot, supposed to be above moral disagreement and conflicts of ....., science was expected to produce 'pure' knowledge, and this knowledge everybody could rely upon - exactly because it was understood to be disconnected from society.

..... of information had, however, to be established in order for the rest of society to share in the pure light of science; scientific results, thus, had to be transmitted, by scientists themselves, or by journalists.

In the early 18th century, science was energetically promoted amongst the public: in London's ..... houses, lecturers offered demonstrations with globes, orreries and other instruments displaying the marvels of the clockwork universe, while performing chemical, magnetic, and electrical experiments.

In the spring of 1713, Newton's protg William Whiston was holding ..... on mathematics and science at both Douglas's in St. Martin's Lane and at the Marine near the Royal Exchange.

In the journal 'The Spectator', Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in 1711 foresaw with delight those times "when Knowledge, instead of being ..... up in Books, and kept in Libraries and retirement, is thus obtruded upon the Publick; when it is canvassed in every Assembly, and exposed upon every Table."

So the convention and the practice of science transmission has quite a long history; it has been motivated by aims of 'pure' enlightenment and of spreading the ..... of the scientific worldview, but probably it has always been a mixed-purpose enterprise.