När vetenskapen tystnar : Ett socialpsykologiskt studium av massmedias behandling av morden i Falun, Bjuv och på Stureplan

Sammanfattning: This dissertation is a social psychological study of the influence of science on everyday thinking. The specific focus is the way in which mass media, as an intermediate arena of knowledge in society, accepts or rejects scientific concepts and findings. Particularly, it concerns the phenomenon that the Swedish mass media calls "the inexplicable violence". The thesis points to a journalistic independence from science. On the one hand this refers to the condition, that the journalist can reject the legitimacy of scientific explanations to violence. On the other hand it illuminates the establishment of independent links of knowledge, between the journalist and everyday man. This work consists of three main arguments for a journalistic independence from science. The first argument demonstrates how the scientific expert and the journalist differ in their interpretations of violence. While the scientific expert refers to social, biological, psychological or medical causes, the journalistic thinking is based upon a moralistic perception in terms of motives. The second argument deepens the understanding of the moral rationality in mass media. It shows in detail how the moral pathos gives rise to a distinct set of assumptions, differing from the presuppositions of the scientific experts. The third and final argument, establishes a connection between the journalist and "the everyday thinker". The purpose of this concept is not only to show that everyday man could reject science and formulate his own knowledge. It also suggests that even when accepted, science could not give self-evident and unquestionable answers to social problems.