Agenda building intervention of socio-scientific issues: A science media centre of Japan perspective

In the present day, social agenda is constructed on media, but its manner has become complicated after the rise of the Internet. Socio-scientific issues also form their shape on media, so it could be said media is an origin where misunderstanding between experts and citizens begins. The theme of this chapter is to depict the difficulty of performing deliberation within this complex media ecosystem with subsuming socio-scientific issues. Furthermore, by figuring out its difficulty, this chapter will throw questions at Science and Technology Studies (STS) about its significance and role in the face of the media argument. In order to outline this complicated problem, this chapter takes the following configuration: First, depict the structural features of science media in Japan, which is an object of intervention of the Science Media Centre of Japan (SMCJ). Then we will describe the functional procedures of the SMCJ. This will lead to a reflexive examination of the SMCJ’s activity following the Great East Japan Earthquake, where we will discuss the significance and limitation on intervening agenda building and framing processes in the media.