Institutional and/versus commercial media coverage: representations of the University of California, Berkeley–Novartis agreement

Abstract

In 1998, a contract was signed between the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) and Novartis in which the latter agreed to give UCB's Department of Plant and Microbial Biology US$25 million over a five year period. This Agreement was the foundation for debates that split the university over issues related to corporate control of the university, the environmental and social consequences of biotechnology, intellectual property rights, and academic freedom. This paper investigates the ways in which the Agreement was presented within the public relations office of UCB and the popular press, as well as reactions to that coverage. Data were collected through archival and web-based searches and interviews with individuals connected to the Agreement.