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Science and the Mass Media: A Clash of Cultures
I received this through another list server and
thought it would be of interest. The original is at
http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2004/may/edit_040510.html
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Science and the Mass Media: A Clash of Cultures
By Richard Gallagher
How many journalists does it take to change a light
bulb?
Three. One to report it as an inspired government
program to bring light to the people, one to report it
as a diabolical government plot to deprive the poor of
darkness, and one who aims for a Pulitzer prize,
reporting that the electric company hired a light bulb
assassin to break the bulb in the first place.
To put it another way, mass media content is "a
socially created product, not a reflection of an
objective reality."1 In contrast, science is as close
to an objective reality as we can muster. How the two
interact is fascinating, and it's not without tension:
Researchers get frustrated when the media
sensationalize science, and they often lack respect
for journalists, while reporters regularly find
scientists to be incomprehensible and opaque, poor
communicators who wrap their message within layers of
caveats.
A number of other factors influence the quality of
science reporting. On the credit side, there currently
exists a pool of trained and talented science
reporters, the likes of which have never been seen
before. However, this is more than canceled out by the
single consideration that currently dominates the
print and broadcast media: entertainment. The first
target of any media organization is survival, and
today that requires that they amuse and distract us.
According to a survey of 300 US media professionals,
conducted by The Columbia Journalism Review, 84% of
journalists polled felt that a story would not be
covered if it were "important but dull." Remarked
Peter Preston, editor of The Observer newspaper: "This
is not dumbing down; it is dumbing out."
Nonetheless, science coverage in the media is growing.
For example, a recent analysis of Danish newspapers2
concluded that there was a "dramatic and accelerating
sevenfold increase in the number of articles referring
to researchers" between 1961 and 2001.
What rules apply to news selection? According to
Pamela J. Shoemaker and Stephen D. Reese,1 news values
fall into six categories: prominence/importance, human
interest, conflict/controversy, the unusual,
timeliness, and proximity. Some topics, such as
biosecurity or the development of a new disease
therapy, share many of these values. We begin to see,
for instance, why the Raelians' cloning claims got so
much attention. On the face of it, the reporting was
not poor journalism; on the contrary, every news value
was realized, and it was entertaining. The difficulty,
from the scientific vantage point, is that it was
nonsense, purely a "socially created product." Several
of Shoemaker and Reese's news values appear irrelevant
or even antagonistic to straight coverage of
mainstream science.
Although claims of human cloning stick in the mind
(and the throat), they are the exception in science
news. Regular reporting of research papers on the day
of publication dominate, not surprising since news
needs defined events. What is surprising is the
predictability of story selection. A recent analysis3
of coverage by newspapers on research published in
four elite journals concluded: "Journalists depict
themselves as keen--at times even
ruthless--competitors with one another, but this
finding suggests a different view: When it comes to
breaking news about scientific research, newspapers
try to make sure that they cover the stories that
other newspapers cover. The goal is not to be
different, but to be the same."
It is not clear whether science journalists run in
packs because they all have good news judgment,
because their employers constrain them, or because
they are lazy. Whatever the cause, the opening joke
appears not to apply.
Richard Gallagher, Editor
rgallagher@the-scientist.com
References
1. P.J. Shoemaker, S.D. Reese, "Mediating the
message," In: Theories of Influences on Mass Media
Content, 2nd ed., White Plains, NY: Longman, 1996, p.
261.
2. E. Albaek et al., J Mass Comm Quart, 80:937, 2003.
3. V. Kiernan, J Mass Comm Quart, 80:903, 2003.
=====
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-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
-- John
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Certified Health Physicist
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