The emergence of a 'new' discourse on science in connection with events related to the environment, food safety or public health, raises qestions regarding the suitability of the triangular communication model, in which there is an 'intermediary' discourse plying between science and the general public. The pragmatic functions of these two separate discourses on science are compared here, for the French mass media, by exploring the linguistic and discursive variations characterizing their communicative and cognitive dimensions.