Science and Media Influence on U.S. Public Policy

Introduction: Science, Media, and Public Policy

Public policy in the U.S. is, and will hopefully forever remain, an evolving body. The concepts that are appropriate today and the policies that surround them may not have been important just a few years ago. With regard to how the media and science impact public policy, there is no real question that they do — the question is what role these two social forces should play in the development of public policy. The influence that science and the media have on public policy should be present, as each entity offers the prospect of real change in response to public need and even public safety. However, both should also be kept at arm's length to some degree with regard to policy influence, as each has the potential to alter public policy in negative ways.

Popular Media and Social Media Regulation

With regard to the media, there are several issues at stake — among them, which media we are talking about: the popular media that dictates social norms and standards, or the so-called neutral media engaged in informing the public of issues and current events. Both forms of media have the potential to inform public policy and, to some degree, should do so. Yet there should also be limits.

In the case of popular media such as the internet — and specifically social media networking — one clear example is the massive expansion of public policy needed to respond to the many ways that social media can be used to harm its participants. Laws, regulations, and standards have been required for mitigating entirely new crimes such as cyberstalking, identity theft, fraud, and — perhaps most importantly — the potential for social media to harm children through live contact with unknown individuals who have dangerous intentions (Buskirk NP). Buskirk rightly points out that with regard to control, social media and other forms of popular media are not in a position to completely police themselves, and regardless of good intentions, bad things sometimes happen and bad actors sometimes use these services to commit crimes and behave in amoral ways (NP). This is not to say that public policy should act as a censor of anything that might be deemed potentially harmful. A clear line should be drawn regarding censorship and the monitoring of identity or activity by public entities.

Neutral News Media and Crime Reporting

The so-called neutral media — charged with informing the public of issues and current events — faces a serious balancing act, as more and more of it appears to be driven by ratings and a tendency to expose and illuminate events that are potentially harmful to the development of sound public policy. A particularly striking example is the fact that the "neutral" informative media disproportionately represents crime, and especially violent crime, because it is newsworthy.

When the public or policy makers consume this material — assuming it comes from a credible, neutral source — it can and has in the past created fear and policy changes associated with a tough-on-crime stance. Even though the United States was experiencing a marked drop in actual crime rates, laws and policies changed during the 1980s and 1990s that created extreme growth in incarceration rates. This growth has proven unsustainable in both the short and long term and will have to be addressed as a serious social and economic problem well into the future (Krajicek 4–5). The relationship between media coverage and public policy is thus a powerful and potentially distorting one.

Science, Ethics, and Public Policy Collaboration

With regard to science, there is a serious need for scientific and technological discoveries to influence public policy, as science feeds development and innovation. Public policy should demonstrate a real collaborative approach — both helping to control scientific ethics and enabling the kind of innovation that might benefit all of humanity. Science, like many other fields, is largely self-regulated by a network of professional bodies as well as by scientists themselves. Yet there are always cases where scientific self-regulation falls short and the introduction of public policy is needed to maintain ethical and moral standards in the conduct of research.

Conclusion: Balancing Influence and Oversight

In closing, there is a real and present state of collaboration between public policy, media, and science. In the sense of positive outcomes, this collaboration is genuinely necessary, and both the media and science should inform public policy. Yet there is also an important need for public policy to maintain a "consumer beware" stance with regard to both science and media, as each must be properly situated in its rightful place as an agent of change — without being allowed to overly dominate or distort the policy-making process.

Works Cited

Buskirk, Elliot V. "Thousands of NY Sex Offenders Booted From Facebook, MySpace." Epicenter, December 2009. Web.

Caras, Roger. "We Must Find Alternatives to Animals in Research." Newsweek, 26 December 1988: 57.

Kaplan, Karen. "Scientists to Congress: Pass the Stem Cell Law … While You Still Can." Los Angeles Times, 5 November 2010. Web.

Krajicek, David J. Scooped! Media Miss Real Story on Crime While Chasing Sex, Sleaze, and Celebrities. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.