Project

Role of MODCs on public debate and regulations of CRISPR-Cas

This topic of this thesis project is part of the ongoing project Role of Multimodal Online Discourse Coalitions (MODCs) on the public debate and regulatory frameworks of CRISPR-Cas in Europe. The use of visual forms of communication online (besides text) is becoming a prominent form of political engagement in public debates about controversial technologies and their public policy interventions, like the case of CRISPR-Cas genome editing and its regulatory policy in Europe.

Description

Studying the influence of public debates online on policy decisions is difficult to establish. This project explores links between multimodal framing and Social Network Analysis methods to analyse the European debate(s) about CRISPR-Cas technology in social media and the offline framings and actions of of key actors involved in the governance of CRISPR-Cas regulation. This project requires some familiarity with comparative studies approaches and social network analysis.

Required skills:

Mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, SNA and coding methods familiarity. This project fits the interest of students researching the role of technology in society or researching relevant factors in the governance process of technological transitions.