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Document Details : Title: Foreword Subtitle: Science in a community of values Author(s): HYMERS, John Journal: Ethical Perspectives Volume: 13 Issue: 1 Date: March 2006 Pages: 1-10 DOI: 10.2143/EP.13.1.2011784 Abstract : Through a framework that prefers to accompany Big Science with press releases and, in turn, to make scientists into celebrities, the media has ensured itself an important role in what used to be a slow process of scientific discovery and peer-reviewed publishing. This star system has certainly not subverted proper scientific methods of publication, but it has greatly accelerated the speed and intensity with which breakthroughs reach the public. At first blush, this might seem to be an immediate way for science to interact with community, and to be shaped by its values. But instead, it seems more likely that the news media is exclusively interested in canonising this star system, in which the values are those of celebrity – or pariah – rather than values mirroring the community’s higher interests. |
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