Contexts constrain science in the public: How the sociobiology debate was (not) presented in the German press

Abstract

This article reports on a media study on the coverage of sociobiology (SB) in the German media. The analyses show a decoupling between the academic discussion and the German media coverage: when the scientific debates about SB were at their height (late 1970s), nearly no reporting occurred in the German press, whereas from the middle of the 1990s onwards, when the academic discussion had settled, SB was presented increasingly often. The case reveals the importance of cultural contexts in shaping popular science coverage, making SB a non-issue in the German media at the times of its most intense scientific debate. Factors contributing to this particular situation in German academia and popular culture are discussed. Comparisons with other studies show how the late renaissance of SB in Germany in the late 1990s is due to media attention towards the new biosciences.