The social representations of "technological birth" in mass media communication

In this paper we present a part of a wide explorative research about the social representation of technological birth, as exposed in Media-texts. The novelty and short time in which this last border of scientific and technological progress is coming in common-sense and public opinion gives importance to the role of newspapers and magazines producing the social representation of artificial insemination. The texts (437 articles) were analysed by a french software (SPAD), used for content analysis of different texts, that applies factors analysis (AC) to qualitative variables. Elaborating the interactions of words on factors, it was possible to: a) extrapolate the main topics (thematic nucleus) of Artificial insemination’s representation on italian magazines; b) examine the differences/ likenesses on messages and “communicative style” of 3 newspapers (Corriere della Sera; la Repubblica; La Stampa); c) specify a possible variation of news during the considered period (1989-1995).