"Representations of genome-engineering biotechnologies in New Zealand - Political and science communications". Conference paper presented at the Australian Political Studies Association Conference 'State of Democracy and Politics: Local, regional and global. University of Western Australia, Perth, 28 - 29 November 2024

This study examined how actors favourable to re-regulating genome-engineering biotechnologies (GEB) portrayed them in the public sphere, in New Zealand, between 2017 and 2023. The aim was to understand the scope and veracity of GEB representations that may affect public and political regulatory preferences. The innovative framework proposed integrates discourse analysis with agnotology perspectives. The corpus contains 88 media items, political party programs and official documents. The study found that the majority of the 233 actor contributions came from scientists developing GEBs and conservative politicians. Most media items represented exclusively or predominantly the views of pro-GEB actors, without any critical analysis. Actors holding other views on various GEB applications often resorted to opinion articles. The few media items presenting equal or both types of perspectives adopted a ‘she said / he said’ approach, which contributes to sustaining polarisation in society. Inductive methods of analysis identified 772 discursive units, shaping 21 framing devices across three discourse domains: regulatory regimes domestically and globally, science and applications/products, and public engagement. Discourses in the realm of environmental and cultural implications were missing form communications by pro-GEB actors, journalists and public sector officials. While only five framing devices were found to misinform (through omissions, misrepresentations and falsehoods), they represented 47.2% of all discursive units selected for analysis. Misinformation regarded mostly representations of science and applications (safety, benefits), but affected also portrayals of regulatory regimes in new Zealand and overseas. The item with the highest number of misinformation (33 occurrences) was the national Party's proposed Biotechnology Plan. These occurrences consisted often of quotes by vested-interest scientists developing GEOs and commercial actors. Many of these quotes appeared in the media (newspapers, radio, television broadcasts). Overall the findings raise concerns regarding the quality of science journalism in New Zealand, the narrow scope and problematic quality of communications by pro-GEB actors, especially the dominant vested-interest geneticists, and the impact of misinformation on public policy.