Science Journalism

GuanYin

Ok, I think this is probably better suited here than in "Science" and its something that has been getting on my nerves recently.

Its been a common trend over the past few years for journalists to cover science topics badly in the national press. The list of things they have screwd up is long and detailed but for example their big misses include that they arguably:

1. Misrepresented the idea of Natural Selection.
2. Have given a wrong impression of the nature of DNA and what it can tell us (the "blueprint term").
3. Caused mass hysteria over CJD.
4. Caused mass hysteria about collisions with celestial bodies.
5.Misrepresented the case GM substances. (to the point where the idea is shot down with even being listened to).
6.Misrepresented the case of genetics and cloning.
7.Caused mass hysteria over SARS

and so on.

now, some of these effects are not so bad and just require people re-educating them selves, while others have huge effects (The banana may go extinct because its a natural clone that is being wiped out by a fungus. As it is cloned it has no defence against such a threat, GM techniques could just make it resistant to the fungus, but no company will pay for research as they fear consumers won't buy GM bananas) and some cause widespread hysteria (SARS).

In some cases the reporting is intentionally sensationalised, while often it is just that the journalist dumbs down the science to such an effect that he loses the meaning and gets it wrong.

The press don't really care about this as chaos, panic and mayhem sell papers. So should there be a government watchdog to monitor and edit the press so that they are forced to employ science journos or at least people who will report accurate unsensationalised accounts.

daveirl

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Clintons Cat

Its a problem with all aspects of the media journalism,i am afraid.

Since the downsizing of Wapping,in the eighties and the emergence of more globalised (read more) competition, All news agencies have been forced to cut costs by retaining less staff writers especially in specialised areas such as the Sciences and Arts.

A consequence of this is a greater reliance on Press briefings,or if you prefer jargon, "spin".That means a less critical (in the first instance) of press briefings,often tailored by PR consultants to gain the maximum coverage possible.

For example compare the daily death toll between Malaria and Sars for how hype can distort peoples perceptions of an epedeic.

Or how operation ore figures were "massaged" to include visitors to totally legal in the US adult sites whose payment details were handled by the same company that handled transactions from the illeagal KP site.

This story is off-topic..but does highlight some of the problems of irresponsible reporting...Del Naja was one of those who found his name on the list of suspected peadophiles,this is how the sun can treat a celebrity with a pulic platform to the allegations but what chance the average joe on one of Responsible Rebeka's Hitlists?

Del Naja says he was "caught in the sweep" of Operation Ore, the investigation into internet paedophilia founded on a list of 7,300 UK-based credit card numbers passed on to the national crime squad by the FBI. Del Naja's credit card number was among them. In 1999, his card had been charged $3 by a website - he doesn't remember which one, he says, but probably some porn site.

"The company that it's attributed to owns hundreds of websites, all different, some of which are absolutely vile, hideous. I was away in London and somebody phoned up and told me they'd been let into my house by a mate of mine. They took everything, every video, every memory stick, every hard drive, spent a month analysing it and found absolutely nothing."

<<<snip>>>>


However, he continued planning the Antipodean tour. On March 5, the Sun followed its initial story with the news that Massive Attack's projected dates in New Zealand had been postponed.

Del Naja claims that the Sun called the New Zealand and Australian embassies: "They spoke to them, told them about the allegations - which were only allegations, there weren't any actual facts - and they cancelled all our visas," he says. "We thought, '****ing hell, this is getting really heavy.' We had to rearrange our tour dates, which cost a lot of money, caused a lot of heartache and disappointed a lot of people out there. There was no reason for them to do that, other than the fact that there wasn't actually a story there. Nobody believed the allegations, basically there was never a case. We got letters back from the consulate apologising, saying we've been misinformed, we never should have cancelled your visas, but the damage is done."

Well thats my opinion,for what its worth.

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