Articles Volume 25 (2005)
IV Dynamis Prize for the promotion of research into the history of
medicine and health
MATIANA GONZÁLEZ SILVA. From the sociological factor to the genetic factor. Genes and disease
in the pages of El País (1976-2002) Dynamis, 2005 (PDF)
Summary
1.—Introduction. 2.—Genes and disease in El País. 2.1.—Genetics, one
more hypothesis (1976-1980). 2.2.—A radical change of direction in aetiology
(1981-1987). 2.3.—The reign of the gene (1988-1998). 2.4.—Some
cracks in the edifice (1999-2002). 3.—Conclusions.
Abstract
Transformations in the Spanish public discourse on the link between genes
and disease are analysed by an attentive reading of the journalistic texts
published in El País between 1976 and 2002, and the newspaper’s model
of popularisation is explored. Whereas in the seventies a social and complex
vision of disease was favoured, by the nineties the genetic approach
was predominant. El País supported this «geneticisation» and fostered an
increasingly neutral and apolitical image of science.