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How geneticists can help reporters to get their story right

Abstract

Many geneticists are disgruntled with the coverage of genetics in the mass media, yet geneticists themselves have a part to play in improving that coverage. This article aims to help geneticists to do so by explaining the forces that shape science news. It provides some specific options for reducing hype, countering genetic determinism and preventing the use of genetics to reinforce discriminatory messages, slants that many reporters are inclined to give to their articles.

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Figure 1: Slant on the issue of whether race is genetic in a sample of news articles about human genetic variation.
Figure 2: Numbers and percentages of statements indicating perceived risk level in 13 focus groups asked “What does 'a gene for heart disease' mean?”

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Acknowledgements

The research on lay understandings of gene–environment interaction is supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant # HG003,961-01 to C.M.C., and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Center of Excellence Grant # 1P01CD000,242-01 to V. Friemuth. The author would like to thank the anonymous referees for their considerable assistance.

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Condit, C. How geneticists can help reporters to get their story right. Nat Rev Genet 8, 815–820 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg2201

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