Analysis On The Effect Of Transgenic Problem In

Since the emergence of transgene technology in the world, there has been more than three decades, and it also has a history of application for over two decades in China. To date, the transgenic technique has been used and developed to some extent. As the deep relevance between science and society has become more and more obvious, the transgenic technique has gone deep into social life gradually. However, the public understanding about it does not match its development. Since some Chinese people questioned about it for the first time in 1990s, the controversy related to transgene technology continues today and has been becoming more complicated, presenting various focuses of discussion and different layers of discourses. But during the process of topics changing, the core of transgenic technique has been emptied, and the public question for transgenic technique, in most cases, ultimately led to the criticism of ideology. While people make discussion toward the application of transgene technology and the public right to know, toward transgene technology and public trust in government, as well as foreign GMF (genetically modified food) market etc., they are still confused about a series of main scientific topics, like "what’s the transgenic technique?" and "What’s the scientific evidence for a certain debate about transgenic technique", which should have been the basic knowledge for starting a discussion of transgenic technique, especially discussions about GMF security. For these considerations mentioned here above, it is significative to study the current contents of discussions on transgenic technique and the corresponding communication effects.At the time of all kinds of views and ideas being widely reported or speculated, Guokr.com, a broadly-saying technology website with the nature of media, has taken an active part in the science communication of transgene, attempting to help the public bridge the gaps in basic knowledge about transgene and change the way people view it. The transgene-related passages posted in this website for science communication have been studied in this thesis to analyze the communication characteristics and the specific effects, with the hope of investigating and discussing the status quo of science communication.On the basis of the research purpose and significance above, it adopted four research methods for this study, including document research, content analysis, questionnaire and comparative study. During the study, a large number of detailed materials were obtained and analyzed adequately. Content analysis was used for the transgene-related passages on the website to describe the communication characteristics. Meanwhile, questionnaires for the registered users of Guokr.com and general netizens were conducted for the further study and investigation on the situation of the science communication in China and its path to develop in future. The amount of valid questionnaires of these two groups is 320 and 308 separately. Through the application of mathematical statistics and comparative analysis, it is expected to inspect the corresponding communication effects of transgene-related topics published on the website Guokr.com.According to the comprehensive research, it can be concluded that there are several communication characteristics for the transgene-related topics published on Guokr.com. First, the number of transgene-related articles in the website from October in 2010 to September in 2014 stayed nearly at the same level except slight increase during these two years. It is believed that there is some correlation between that and the attention of the public on transgene-related topics. Second, most of the related articles were from other sources outside of the website and the translation and introduction of foreign articles. Although this indicates its feature of open and diversity, the specialty and authority are also affected as well. Third, there are more articles about GMFs and the real-world application of transgenic technique, while the content of each article is always presented and described positively and monolithically, which more or less conveys the attitude of Guoke.com indirectly. Moreover, even though there are interactions, exactly low-frequency interactions most of the time, between the registered users and the website, the number of people attracted by science communication of the website is so limited.In this study, the questionnaires were designed according to the contents of transgene-related topics to investigate the cognition and attitude of registered users and general netizens toward transgene-related topics. The statistics was taken as a reference to analyze the corresponding communication effects. It is believed in the study that in the aspect of the public cognition toward transgene-related topics, the communication behavior of Guokr.com can have certain impacts on those who has been concerned about transgene-related topics. Nevertheless, there is few impact in the aspect of the public attitude and behaviors. Integrating the result of content analysis and the statistics of questionnaires, it is concluded that there are three reasons for this. First, the original cognition has hindered the reception of new knowledge and the change of attitude. Second, the existing public opinion has become the barrier for the spread of certain topics among people, and the perception to the existing public opinion also solidifies people’s original views. Third, the transgene-related topics are becoming ineffective because of the abundant media resources.The research findings all above show that people have insufficient cognition toward basic scientific knowledge related to transgene and that there are difficulties for the spread of transgene-related topics among people. It is expected that the government, scientific communities and medias should be linked to explore the feasible and efficient path for science communication in order that people can think deeply about scientific issues with some basic knowledge of science.