O_Riordan-0963662516639001.pdf (802.84 kB)
The first bite: imaginaries, promotional publics and the laboratory grown burger
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 00:12 authored by Kate O'Riordan, Aristea Fotopoulou, Neil StevensIn this paper we analyse a 2013 press conference hosting the world’s first tasting of a laboratory grown hamburger. We explore this as a media event: an exceptional performative moment in which common meanings are mobilised and a connection to a shared centre of reality is offered. We develop our own theoretical contribution – the promotional public – to characterise the affirmative and partial patchwork of carefully selected actors invoked during the burger tasting. Our account draws upon three areas of analysis: interview data with the scientists who developed the burger, media analysis of the streamed press conference itself, and media analysis of the social media tail during and following the event. We argue that the call to witness an experiment is a form of promotion but that such promotional material also offers an address that invokes a public with its attendant tensions.
Funding
People Award Dr Neil Stephens; Wellcome Trust; WT096541MA
EPINET - Media Analysis (FP7); G0854; EUROPEAN UNION; 288971
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Public Understanding of ScienceISSN
0963-6625Publisher
SAGE PublicationsExternal DOI
Issue
2Volume
26Page range
148-163Department affiliated with
- Media and Film Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes