Metaphor Usage in Early Press Coverage of Nanotechnology: Turning Science into Soccer Balls and Human Hair

ABSTRACT

The development of new discourses is often an interpretative process among both practitioners and onlookers, whether one is studying an emerging technology or press coverage of a new issue. This paper provides an insight into how nanotechnology was introduced to the public beginning in the 1980s through the early years of the twenty-first century by investigating the use of metaphors in the popular press throughout the US. To make nanotechnology understandable to the lay public, much of the coverage was tied to popular cultural items and metaphors such as soccer balls (what nanotech particles “looked” like) and human hairs (relative size of these particles). It was found that positive, or at least harmless, metaphors far outweighed negative images (e.g., gray goo) in the coverage, leading to the conclusion that any potential dangers tied to nanotechnology were both overlooked by the press and unavailable to the public.