Glut versus Gap

In class we talked about the concept of an ‘information vacuum’. An information vacuum is described in the book ‘Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk’ by Leiss and Powell (a book about science communication) as what happens when the scientists conducting research about something make no special effort to communicate their finding to the public, and what does come out is partial scientific information that is often conflicting and mixed with public fear. (All this can be found on page 31).

Two things can happen in this instance where scientists are not informing the public in a timely, accurate manner – a glut or a gap.

A glut is when there is a shared view of the risks involved, however there is no unique agreed upon fact.

A gap occurs when there is a unique agreed upon fact, but no shared view of risks between groups.

I think GM has elements of both.

Glut – both the public and scientists agree there could be risks involved, such as environmental issues like increased invasiveness (shared view of risks involved), but they cannot agree upon how great these risks are (no unique agreed upon fact). Some advocacy groups say the risk is immense, most scientists say it is not.

Gap – there is a gap in the sense that there are undeniable benefits to GMO such as increased nutrition (this is the unique agreed upon fact), however opposing advocacy groups (including scientists in some cases) do not share a view on the risks involved (see my previous post about risks for more on this).

For the ‘information vacuum’ to be solved here, I think the scientific community needs to keep the public better updated on advancements in technology and knowledge. How they can do this effectively is a topic for a future post.