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• Date of publication Sep 21, 2011 Category: Commentary

  Know your genes. The marketing of direct-to-consumer genetic testing

  by Alessandro Delfanti

  Genetic testing promises to put the ability to decide about our life choices in our hands, as well as help solve crucial health problems by preventing the insurgence of diseases. But what happens when these exams are managed by private companies in a free market? Public communication and marketing have proven to be crucial battlefields on which companies companies need to engage in order to emerge. This issue of JCOM tries to shed some light on the communication and marketing practices used by private companies that sell direct-to-consumer genetic testing, from single genetic mutations to whole genome sequencing.

  Predictive or preposterous? The marketing of DTC genetic testing

  by Timothy Caulfield

  From symptomatic to pre-symptomatic patient: the tide of personal genomics

  by Marina Levina and Roswell Quinn

  Of deterritorialization, healthism and biosocialities: the companies' marketing and users' experiences of online genetics

  by Pascal Ducournau and Claire Beaudevin

  DCGT: the individual's benefits above all

  by Donato Ramani and Chiara Saviane

  Genomics' problem of communication

  by Jenny Reardon

  Volume 10 • Issue 03 • 2011

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2011 Category: Commentary

  From symptomatic to pre-symptomatic patient: the tide of personal genomics

  by Marina Levina , Roswell Quinn

  Personal Genomics Companies are an emerging form of biotechnology startup that bring rapidly advancing whole genome technologies to a variety of commercial venues. With a combination of direct-to-consumer marketing, social media, and Web 2.0 applications these companies seek to create novel uses, including entertainment, for what is described as predictive medicine – that is the use of genetic marketers to create health forecasts that would allow individual’s healthcare to be tailored to their individual genomic data. In this brief piece, the authors use a critical cultural approach to question how this combination of genomics research, marketing, and communications technologies may alter both patient experiences and research processes. In it we argue these companies radically expand the definition of a patient by claiming all consumers are simply pre-symptomatic patients. Moreover, by placing genomic data on both the marketplace and cyberspace, personal genomic companies seek to create new avenues of research that alter how we define (and access) research agendas and human subjects. Therefore, beyond commonly discussed issues of ethics and privacy rights, Personal Genomics has the potential to alter both healthcare priorities and distribution.

  Volume 10 • Issue 03 • 2011

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2011 Category: Commentary

  Of deterritorialization, healthism and biosocialities: the companies' marketing and users' experiences of online genetics

  by Pascal Ducournau , Claire Beaudevin

  Since the early 2000s, anybody can buy genetic tests, directly sold on the Internet. These tests provide information about susceptibilities to some diseases and/or about ancestry. Thus, this article deals with a new e-market, whose scientific basis (validity of the tests) and status (as medical devices or consumer goods) are currently controversial. On one hand, we describe the tests and the advertisement and marketing strategies used by the companies (we made an inventory of about 40); on the other hand, we discuss several aspects on the basis of interviews conducted with users: first, the entanglement of these strategies with the global context of healthism and the emphasis put on individuals’ empowerment regarding health decisions — “individualized biopolitics”. In addition, this article broaches the new kind of biosocial networks appearing in these tests’ wake: some users indeed gather on the basis of a genetic proximity, as is it put forward by their results.

  Volume 10 • Issue 03 • 2011

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2011 Category: Commentary

  DCGT: the individual's benefits above all

  by Donato Ramani , Chiara Saviane

  Easy, cheap, efficient as online service often are. Direct to Consumer Genetic Testing (DCGT) represents a big evolution towards personalised medicine. If the phenomenon seems to be unstoppable, the first aim of its present and future developments should be the customers’ benefits. A certified quality of the services provided, a clear communication and a well-structured support to customers should be the critical conditions that could transform those online services in something really important: for the individual’s health and the society as a whole.

  Volume 10 • Issue 03 • 2011

• Date of publication Jun 21, 2011 Category: Commentary

  Science and the Internet: be fruitful and multiply?

  by Sveva Avveduto

  What role and citizenship has the scientific thought on the web, or rather on the social side of the web? Does it benefit from the debate between peers and with the general public, or else does it only risk to become a monologue? How to deal with the number of instruments the Internet is able to provide in making, discussing and disseminating research? These are some of the questions tackled by the reflections from scholars and experts which were the basis for our debate.

  The Internet phenomenon

  by Domenico Laforenza, Maurizio Martinelli and Davide Gualerzi

  Access to news on line: myths, risks and facts

  by Lella Mazzoli

  Social Networks, a Populated Picture

  by Fabio Fornasari

  Volume 10 • Issue 02 • 2011

• Date of publication Jun 21, 2011 Category: Commentary

  Social Networks, a Populated Picture

  by Fabio Fornasari

  Man, by his very nature, puts things between himself and the environment, turning the latter into a place, a space. He arranges the environment around him on multiple levels, by projecting parts of himself and shaping the frontiers and the horizons that surround, define and represent him. This was learnt a long time ago, but a trace and a memory remain in the way man acts: when mapping reality (both physical reality and the reality explored through digital means), we observe it and find a way through it by adopting behaviours that have always been similar. What has changed in this mapping is the ability to recognise, especially the ability to interpret maps and creatively work them.

  Volume 10 • Issue 02 • 2011

• Date of publication Jun 21, 2011 Category: Commentary

  The Internet phenomenon

  by Domenico Laforenza , Maurizio Martinelli , Davide Gualerzi

  The Internet has become a worldwide phenomenon. It is undeniable that the Net has forcefully entered everyday life, ceasing to be a useful tool only for a small circle of researchers and academics, to become a new and versatile means of mass communication. And measuring Internet access and calculating the number of Internet users is not easy. By using the domain names registered in the “.it” as an endogenous metric, the Institute of Informatics and Telematics of the Italian National Research Council (IIT-CNR) carried out a research on Internet diffusion in Italy taking into account some major categories of users (enterprises, non-profit organizations, individuals, professionals and public bodies) and territorial distribution (nation, macro-area, region and province). This research has made it possible to carry out an initial analysis of the digital divide in Italy.

  Volume 10 • Issue 02 • 2011

• Date of publication Jun 21, 2011 Category: Commentary

  Access to news on line: myths, risks and facts

  by Lella Mazzoli

  Although the debates on the Internet (sceptical, enthusiastic and finally more mature ones) in our country started in the mid 90s, it is only over the past few years that the Internet, especially thanks to social networks, has become a daily practice for millions of Italians. Television still is the main medium to spread information, but as it becomes increasingly cross-bred with the Internet (and other media too), the information-spreading process deeply changes. This creates, also in our country, the preconditions for the development of a web public (an active and connected one), founded on the new practices of multitasking and participatory information.

  Volume 10 • Issue 02 • 2011

• Date of publication Mar 21, 2011 Category: Commentary

  Popularizing science in Italy: a historical perspective. An interview with Paola Govoni

  by Paola Govoni

  The interview concerns the role of scientific books in the Italian society from the 19th century until today. Having played an important role in the formation of a national scientific community, science popularization has offered a ceaseless high-quality production during the past two centuries. On the other hand, even today scientific publications do reach only a narrow élite. In the author’s opinion, only the school system has the power to widen the public for science in Italy.

  Volume 10 • Issue 01 • 2011

• Date of publication Mar 21, 2011 Category: Commentary

  Nearly five centuries of science books

  by Daniele Gouthier

  In four steps – from Renaissance to the dawn of the 20th century – this issue explores some aspects of the history of book sciences, as research and popularisation instruments also playing a role in economy. Adrian Johns speaks about the origin of science books in the Renaissance. Then, through the papers respectively by Bruce Lewenstein and Paola Govoni, the focus moves to science books in 19th-century America and Italy. They demonstrate that, in both countries, science books were a stimulus to the establishment of a national scientific community. Finally, Francesco De Ceglia exemplifies the role played by agrarian catechisms in the process of spreading farming skills among landowners.

  Science books and networks in the Renaissance. An interview with Adrian Johns

  by Adrian Johns

  Scientific books in American culture. An interview with Bruce V. Lewenstein

  by Bruce Lewenstein

  Popularizing science in Italy: a historical perspective. An interview with Paola Govoni

  by Paola Govoni

  Farmers for the kingdom of Heaven. Agrarian catechisms in southern Italy in the late enlightenment and the limitations of technical publications

  by Francesco Paolo de Ceglia

  Volume 10 • Issue 01 • 2011