Yes, of course. There is a kind of symbiosis. But when the media ‘cherry pick’ their favorite pet scientists, these scientists gain credibility, and others are ignored, marginalized. General opinion then tends to sway towards what the media touted; and those who conform to that opinion get to publish ‘wider public’ books, stand a better chance not only to obtain funding in general (that isn’t always true actually) but certainly get a bigger look in for ‘new’ projects, ‘innovations’, ‘social action’, ‘public policy’, and so on. They advise Gvmts., particularly in the US. So who is running the show? The media or the scientists? Or unstated Gvmt. policy? Corporations? Some of all of the above? Well that’s impossible to answer. The present state of affairs seems to be considered ‘natural’ and no doubt to some degree it is; things have always been so, in part. But TODers can note that ‘we make our own reality’ is no joke (also called denial of reality), it is most definetly not a sort of vague, unexplicable, process that just ‘takes place’. It has a direction, a purpose, a momentum..One needn’t see this as a ‘conspiracy’ to be uncovered; it is a social process that should be understood. Public health is another area that has been much affected.

-Noisette