Blind faith: fact, fiction and fraud in public controversy over science

Constructivist approaches have flourished in both science studies and media studies during the 1980s. Although similar perspectives are used in these fields to study the production of non-fictional texts, there is little exchange and integration on a theoretical level. This article uses the Buck-Goudsmit Affair to explore an integrated constructivisit approach to public controversy over science. The Buck-Goudsmit Affair is a public controversy in the Netherlands that started in 1990 over a claim about a possible cure against AIDS. It is argued that the public understanding of the controversy can be analysed in terms of a `meta-narrative' structure which accounts for facts, processes and identities of those involved. This `meta-narrative' structure of the developing controversy can be reconstrued on the basis of the texts that make up the textual corpus of the controversy. Various sorts of non-fictional text play a role in public controversy, for example, scientific texts, journalistic texts and legal and ...