Reply #10: That assumes a healthy dynamic between cultural domains.

[cprise]

Each communication from a cultural domain like science reinforces its place in the narrative.
There is a concept called "negative information" which has an effect that I think has come to dominate how the media relates scientific endeavor to the rest of us. The 'climategate' debacle is an example of one scientific topic that has suffered almost solely from the way the press conducted themselves-- their climategate coverage caused the public to actually know less about the topic of climate change than they did before. Whether their motivation is largely conscious or subconscious, these cultural insiders are contributing to the erosion (not reinforcement) of science in our society and the outright repression occurring in a growing number of fields is the result.