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This paper details an analysis of BBC reporting of the proposed links between MMR and autism. The study aimed to identify main issues arising from the media reports into the link between MMR and the development of autism, and how these contribute to common understandings about people with autism. The study employed a form of discourse analysis to discuss how the media debates represent people with autism and perceived risks from the MMR vaccination. Sources were collected from the BBC website, and comprised of both Internet pages and reports from radio programmes broadcast by the BBC. The analysis focuses on reports around the time of the British Prime Minister's (and his family's) decision to not disclose whether their youngest son was given the disputed triple vaccine. A key issue arising from the analysis is the ways in which science is used to argue for both the safeness of the vaccine and …