I found this article interesting for many reasons. First, because of the problems of overpopulation and overconsumption, it seeks to use technology to create a more "sustainable" meat product, that is meat grown from cell cultures instead of raising and slaughtering animals. Therefore, it also addresses the ethical components of meat production heavily debated now. By raising meat through cell cultures, is it more ethical to the animal and for our consumption? It also is a more (or will be once developed further) sustainable method, sustainability something that our planet needs to be focusing on now to deal with.
However, when analyzing this article from a communication perspective it was interesting to see how similar it is to a blog. There are links to other sites explaining more of what is mentioned and questions are rasied through out. It also at the end poses a general question for us to think about and asking specifically what we think and what we should do. Scientific journalism seems to be done differently in this article (or from the articles we have discussed) in that it does talk about an exciting technology for a subject that is in the back of all our minds but doesn't answer the questions for us but makes us think about it and formulate our own opinions. I think it, in general, achieves the same goals of traditional scientific journalism, however uses a different writing style to do so.
Monday, April 14, 2008
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I really liked the way that science journalism was approached in this article, which was kind of blog-style in that it provided links to different websites and posed questions at the end. While this style made the piece more interactive, to this end it also lent it a sense of informality. Could this be a push from the New York Times to widen its audience, particularly, its online readership? I don't think an article written in this way would have ever appeared in the paper New York Times-- but in an age when paper news is rapidly on the decline, the NYT should be proud that it got me so into this article (I even clicked a bunch of the in-text links).
The idea of "growing" meat is new to me, and not something I have ever considered before. It's an interesting concept, but even if it did become easy to mass produce, it would take a while to get people to accept the idea of it. Already we have groups against genetically engineered food, and growing meat may have a similar reaction. It doesn't seem "natural" and many will be wary of it. That being said, the use of technology with food is always increasing, and it will be interesting to see how the scientists communicate with the public about this. I just can't imagine my burger being grown in a vat...
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