Mass-Mediated Expertise as Informal Policy Advice

Bibliographic Data

ID5337451
AuthorsImme Petersen (0000-0002-8828-8672, University of Hamburg, FSP BIOGUM, Hamburg, Germany, corresponding author), Harald Heinrichs (0000-0003-1529-4235, Leuphana University of Lueneburg, Institute for Sustainability Communication, Lueneburg, Germany), Hans P Peters (0000-0002-8777-4329, Forschungszentrum Jülich)
Year2010
Volume35
Issue6
Pages865-887
Publication date2010-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243909357914
OpenAlexW2069447869
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited31

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

Cognitive reframing · Democracy · German · Legitimacy · Mass media · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Law · Policy Transfer and Learning · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Psychology · Public Administration · Social Psychology

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