Public Communication of Science and journalistic ethics. The Representation of the Higgs boson

Abstract

In this article, we deal to establish the adequacy degree of knowledge representation to journalistic ethics as the result of scientific findings. To do this, we analyze the visual information appearing in the press, specifically in the newspaper El País, related to the considered the most important scientific discovery of recent times: the Higgs boson. The results show the particular strategy of representation and public communication of the discovery, and the poor observance of minimum ethical principles in journalistic practice during the process of cultural consolidation of the discovery of the so-called “God particle”.