Stories ‘Told’ about engineering in the Media: Implications for attracting diverse groups to the profession

This study examines how engineering is portrayed in the media. This is set against a continuing discourse in the field around representations and perceptions of engineering as they relate to attracting and retaining diverse groups of students. Data comprises one year of news articles (August 2011-July 2012) selected by the Bulletin Media service for First Bell - an electronic news briefing that is delivered daily to members of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). The research approach is informed by the concept of `framing´ from media studies and narrative policy analysis (NPA), which applies contemporary literary theory to complex public policy issues, such as diversity in engineering. In this paper we describe our emergent research design and current focus on more and less dominant stories that are `told´ about engineering in the media. We then present a constructed narrative and critical analysis of one of the five dominant stories identified in the study, namely: Students´ Lack of Interest and/or Proficiency in Math and Science. Examination of this story points to underlying assumptions about engineering that are implicit to the way engineering is framed in the public discourse. We conclude with a discussion of possible implications of these stories for attracting diverse groups to engineering.