Stakeholders and the controlling of science in 2015
Although these days you're mostly allowed to express and share your opinions and discoveries, there are still some major stakeholders that control what gets accepted into mainstream science/knowledge. A stakeholder is somebody (or a group of people) who gets some kind of choice or say about how something is played out or portrayed, no matter how small that say is. In science and the acceptance of scientific theories these days, there are many stakeholders, but I'm going to be discussing the media and celebrities’ role in deciding what gets accepted and what doesn't in the topic of anti-vaccination. But first let’s get a clear idea of what exactly vaccination is. [Vaccines.gov, 2015.]
What exactly is the "anti-vaxxer movement" and why are people joining it?
Well, to begin with, a vaccination is an injection of a killed or weakened organism/illness that will give you an immunisation so that you can’t get sick with that illness if you may catch in because your body knows how to deal with it. Basically, it’s just preventing you from getting sick. Sounds pretty great right? So why would people oppose? Well, some people believe that giving your children vaccinations will lead to health problems, such as autism. However science has since proven that there is no link between vaccines and autism, or any other serious health problem. So why do some people still disagree with this scientific evidence? That’s where the stakeholders come in.
The media + celebrities and their role as stakeholders in this case.
Even the origin of the myth that vaccination causes autism came from a sort of stakeholder. It was when a famous actress, Jenny Mcarthy, blamed vaccines for making her son autistic. Obviously, according to science, the legitimacy of this stakeholder is quite low, yet people still believed it. Soon many people jumped on the bandwagon, also adding arguments of how it’s cruel to inject a child on their first day of life, and that it’s unnatural. Sometimes their logic gets a bit mixed up, since according to them it’s cruel to make sure your child won't catch a possibly deadly virus and almost everything these days is a bit unnatural, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad. This is where the media comes in. The media is constantly telling people that they're doing something wrong, whether it be raising your kids, cooking or anything really. The reason the media won't let down the “anti-vaxxer movement” is because it’s giving people another reason they're doing something wrong. This benefits the media and businesses, as people who believe it will go to websites about it, buy books about it and visit/give in to many other commercial outputs.
[Sullivan, J., 2015].
How this compares to the stakeholders of astronomers in the past, (specifically Nicolaus Copernicus).
Back in Nicolaus Copernicus’s time, the main stakeholder was the Catholic Church, and sometimes churches and religions can be big stakeholders today as well, but since I am focussing on the media, I will discuss that. The Catholic Church, a bit like the media, liked to point out what someone was doing wrong and instead tell them how they should do it and what to believe. Although these days, it’s not as extreme as it was back then, the stakes still stand. Overall, the difference is clear; back then it was very, very strict, nowadays it’s just a lot of pressure to conform to what the media tells you to be, but it’s not from force.
What exactly is the "anti-vaxxer movement" and why are people joining it?
Well, to begin with, a vaccination is an injection of a killed or weakened organism/illness that will give you an immunisation so that you can’t get sick with that illness if you may catch in because your body knows how to deal with it. Basically, it’s just preventing you from getting sick. Sounds pretty great right? So why would people oppose? Well, some people believe that giving your children vaccinations will lead to health problems, such as autism. However science has since proven that there is no link between vaccines and autism, or any other serious health problem. So why do some people still disagree with this scientific evidence? That’s where the stakeholders come in.
The media + celebrities and their role as stakeholders in this case.
Even the origin of the myth that vaccination causes autism came from a sort of stakeholder. It was when a famous actress, Jenny Mcarthy, blamed vaccines for making her son autistic. Obviously, according to science, the legitimacy of this stakeholder is quite low, yet people still believed it. Soon many people jumped on the bandwagon, also adding arguments of how it’s cruel to inject a child on their first day of life, and that it’s unnatural. Sometimes their logic gets a bit mixed up, since according to them it’s cruel to make sure your child won't catch a possibly deadly virus and almost everything these days is a bit unnatural, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad. This is where the media comes in. The media is constantly telling people that they're doing something wrong, whether it be raising your kids, cooking or anything really. The reason the media won't let down the “anti-vaxxer movement” is because it’s giving people another reason they're doing something wrong. This benefits the media and businesses, as people who believe it will go to websites about it, buy books about it and visit/give in to many other commercial outputs.
[Sullivan, J., 2015].
How this compares to the stakeholders of astronomers in the past, (specifically Nicolaus Copernicus).
Back in Nicolaus Copernicus’s time, the main stakeholder was the Catholic Church, and sometimes churches and religions can be big stakeholders today as well, but since I am focussing on the media, I will discuss that. The Catholic Church, a bit like the media, liked to point out what someone was doing wrong and instead tell them how they should do it and what to believe. Although these days, it’s not as extreme as it was back then, the stakes still stand. Overall, the difference is clear; back then it was very, very strict, nowadays it’s just a lot of pressure to conform to what the media tells you to be, but it’s not from force.
References for this page
Sullivan, J., 2015. Vaccines. [Online]
Available at: http://www.vox.com/cards/vaccines/do-vaccines-cause-autism
[Accessed 28 August 2015].
Vaccines.gov, 2015. Vaccines. [Online]
Available at: http://www.vaccines.gov/basics/
[Accessed 28 August 2015].
Available at: http://www.vox.com/cards/vaccines/do-vaccines-cause-autism
[Accessed 28 August 2015].
Vaccines.gov, 2015. Vaccines. [Online]
Available at: http://www.vaccines.gov/basics/
[Accessed 28 August 2015].