Bad Science in the Press

An anonymous reader writes " An editorial in The Guardian presents a good run down of what is wrong with science reporting today and tries to point out why this is. From the article: 'Why is science in the media so often pointless, simplistic, boring, or just plain wrong? Like a proper little Darwin, I've been collecting specimens, making careful observations, and now I'm ready to present my theory.'"

Science is complex.

[CyricZ (887944)]

Science is complex. More often than not very well-trained and experienced scientists get it completely wrong. That said, somebody with a minimal scientific background (ie. a Journalism major) will very often screw up more complicated scientific articles. But likewise, many scientists dislike writing such articles. So we end up with a situation where those in the know would rather not write, and those not in the know are the ones who do write. And the result is lousy scientific articles.

Re:Science is complex.

[dtdns (559328)]

BEDEVERE: And that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped.

ARTHUR: This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere. Explain again how sheeps' bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes.

Re:Science is complex.

[rimu guy (665008)]

Buy and read the New Scientist [newscientist.com] magazine. They cover complex scientific topics. And they convey them in clear (even readable) language. You will soon find that good science and good writing are not mutually exclusive.

--
VPS Hosting Anyone? [rimuhosting.com]

Re:Science is complex.

[Stridar (325860)]

I would add that The Economist is also usually a very good source for science news, even though it doesn't come with the frequency or pagecount to warrent calling The Economist a scientific publication.

Another recommendation

[Beryllium Sphere(tm) (193358)]

I'm a longtime and mostly happy subscriber to Science News [sciencenews.org]. It's weekly and seems to hire educated reporters.

Re:Make this guy science editor at the Gaurdian.

[Savantissimo (893682)]

Scientific American has been frequently lousy for quite a while. The slide started in 1986 when Holtzbrinck Publishing Group bought it. Dennis Flanagan was the man who made the magazine great, editing it from the late '40s, when he and G. Piel bought the largely hobby and shop-oriented magazine. He presented serious science in a way that an educated layman could understand, never compromised accuracy for sales, and maintained the pratical orientation of the magazine with the Amateur Scientist column. The next editor, Jonathan Piel, who was the son of the long-time chairman and former co-owner, Gerard Piel, was not terribly good. John Rennie, the editor for the past 11 years, has really made the magazine into a more political version of Discover, and eliminated the Amateur Scientist and thus the idea that science was something that didn't belong just to the credentialed authorities.

New Scientist is definitely at a higher level than SA now.

Re:Science is complex.

[rebeka thomas (673264)]

Not only the science, but the interpreting of the results.
The world's bad reporters would have us believe tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people died and are in ill health because of chernobyl, but when it comes down to facts and reality 56 people are known to have died, and there are no profound negative impacts to the surrounding population.

Bad Science is all about getting attention for personal, political or financial gain.

cost/benefit ratios

[SuperBanana (662181)]

More often than not very well-trained and experienced scientists get it completely wrong.

GOOD scientists don't purposefully make statements that are absolute. Good scientists are guarded and pick their words carefully.

That said, somebody with a minimal scientific background (ie. a Journalism major) will very often screw up more complicated scientific articles.

Quite on the contrary. It is the same reason you only get reports about murders and status updates on Bennifer- media, on all levels (at least in the US) is owned increasingly by large holding groups. Holding groups do one thing well: try to squeeze every penny.

Scientific articles require more legwork, and that means fewer stories per person per day. "Entertainment" stories practically pay for themselves (free plane tickets, free hotel stays, free footage, free access to a popular star). Murders are easy to cover- listen to the scanner, show up and stand there for the live-on-scene footage, maybe interview a hysterical family member or friend. Tada, done. Celebs and blood sell; nerdy stories that are hard to research won't.

Science also doesn't jive with the "cover all viewpoints" they teach in journalism 101 (case and point, "intelligent design" vs. Evolution. Evolution is something the church gave up on decades ago, and the rest of the world knows is fact- but the American press feels "Intelligent Design" deserves presentation on equal grounds and parrots the President when he says it deserves "consideration".)

Actually, here's something scary

[Moraelin (679338)]

"Evolution is something the church gave up on decades ago, and the rest of the world knows is fact- but the American press feels "Intelligent Design" deserves presentation on equal grounds and parrots the President when he says it deserves "consideration"."

Well, actually here's a link to a poll that contradicts the "the rest of the world knows is fact" assertion:

Natural selection fighting to survive in the US [theregister.co.uk]

It's scary, really. Basically only 26% of those polled actually believed Darwin. (Ranging from 27% among the whites to as low as 14% among the blacks.)

To make ignorance even scarier, even in this group, 15% of them said that life existed from day 0 and never changed, and 10% said evolution was guided by some supreme being. Makes me wonder if they even have a clue wtf they're talking about, if they think "evolution" means life staying unchanged.

So, anyway, now let's subtract those 25% (10% + 15%, since both are really are creationists or ID fans in disguise) from that 26% group, and you're left with 26 * 0.75 = 19.5% who actually do believe in the real evolution theory. That's it. Less than 1 person in 5.

So with all due respect, I'd challenge that assertion that "everyone else knows evolution is a fact". It may be so for you and me and our equally nerdy, educated friends, but if we're talking the bulk of the population, less than 1 in 5 are anywhere _near_ sharing that point of view.

Also 64% supported teaching Intelligent Design in schools.

So basically when the press is giving ID equal opportunity, rest assured that it's not just for Dubya's sake. It's really cattering to those 80.5% who actually do believe in creationism or ID, or those 64% who are obviously ignorant enough to not be able to tell the difference between science and pseudo-science babble.

Seriously, whenever I start thinking that maybe we nerds are just elitist with our snotty attitude about the ignorant, uneducated masses... such a study comes along and proves it in hard numbers and percentages that we _are_ right, after all. The majority really _is_ that dumb and uneducated.

Re:Actually, here's something scary

[Mike1024 (184871)]

It's scary, really. Basically only 26% of those polled actually believed Darwin.

To me, it seems a bit odd that you chose that statistic. Consider the original report [people-press.org]. It says:

Life on earth has:
* Existed in it's present form from the beginning ot time: 42%
* Evolved over time: 48%
* Don't know: 10%

Granted, some people believe evolution was guided by God, but if they're Christians (and there are a lot of christians in the US), that seems like a fine way to reconcile scientific fact with thier beliefs.

What I thought was interesting was that a clear majority thought republicans were more likely to protect religious values while democrats were more likely to protect individual freedoms.... and the people who hold these views elected a republican president.

It's an interesting study, and I advise anyone interested to look at it.

Michael

I don't think it's just that

[Moraelin (679338)]

As TFA pointed out:

1. It's not about articles written by actual scientists, and not about articles published in real scientific journals. It's the mainstream media that makes a mockery of science.

2. There is a group that seems to be on a crusade to present science as just hocus-pocus babble, as some new religion where self-serving high-priests spout obfuscated nonsense, and where if you asked 10 different scientists about any topic you'd get 11 different conflicting theories.

The article blames it on humanities students, but personally I think that's pointing the finger at the wrong group. In my personal limited observation -- but bear in mind that it's no scientific sample or anything, and generally it's just "IMHO" -- it's just a case of the dumb and uneducated feeling a _need_ to drag everyone back to their level, and articles that catter to that dumb and uneducated majority.

The article itself skirts with that answer when it says that those articles treat you like you're dumb and couldn't possibly understand any real scientific terminology or statistics. Well, bingo. Because they're written for people who don't, and who _want_ some positive reinforcement that the muck of mediocrity (and sub-mediocrity) is cool- That any kind of academic achievement, humanities included, is (A) just some nonsense techno-bable, (B) irrelevant in the real world, (C) a scam, and usually (D) all the above.

And a lot of publications are basically just prom-queens. They'll print what sells. That means what their intended audience wants to hear. If that audience wants to hear that the nerds they mocked in school still didn't really achieve anything, and nowadays are a bunch of quacks and witch-doctors bickering over whose techno-babble religion is better, they'll publish just that.

(Before I go any further, let me mention though that by "education", I don't only mean strictly school. I also mean, in fact even _especially_ mean studying on your own, above and beyond just sitting and daydreaming in class. So if you've made the effort to learn something and improve yourself, even without an university degree, you're _not_ the category I'm talking about.)

And outside magazines, it gets even worse. Every single example is taken out of context and polished into shining proof that education is irrelevant, and sitting on your ass in front of the TV is just as good. Examples you occasionally see even on slashdot include:

- Start with the fact IQ test results are irrelevant for a lot of jobs, and indeed many would even question if they measure "intelligence", or that something as complex as the many aspects of human intelligence can be squeezed into a single number. But then extrapolate it to mean that _intelligence_ as such as irrelevant to any real jobs, or indeed a _handicap_ in the real world.

(In the words of a Slashdot poster in a recent post, the less intelligent have more other (presumably better) advantages, like empathising better with each other, since they're the majority. And, I quote, "So the next time, someone praised you for being intelligent and well-off....just bear these in mind.....seriously, it may not be a good thing in my not-so-honorable opinion ;P")

- Take some speech of someone rich and successful, e.g., Steve Jobs, and cut out of context the part where he mentioned he quit college. But conveniently ommit that he also says that he went to study on his own the things that interested him. So we're talking someone who still worked hard at improving himself, _not_ an example of a couch-potato that made it bigger.

Or even going as far as making up a fake speech of such a successful person where he calls college students losers again and again. (See the fake Larry Ellison speech being occasionally waved around.)

- That some prominent scientific figure, e.g., Einstein seems to be the favourite poster child, didn't do that well in school either, so it's ok for us to sleep in maths and physics classes too. But conveniently mi

Re:I don't think it's just that

[mwrm (563444)]

That some prominent scientific figure, e.g., Einstein seems to be the favourite poster child, didn't do that well in school either

While Einstein left his secondary school early without qualifications, it was not because of academic slackness. His work in primary school had been excellent. Here his mother writes to her sister:

"Yesterday Albert received his grades, he was again number one, and his report card was brilliant."

He went on to a further education college to obtain the qualifications for university entrance. He got fairly high marks here (top in maths and physics, etc).

Some of the "Eintein did badly at school" reputation comes from the difference in Swiss and German marking systems. Switzerland where Einstein studied used 6 as the best grade and 1 as the worst grade. Germany used 1 as the best and 6 as the worst. In time his results of 5 and 6 (good results in Switzerland) were transposed into the German system, making them seem bad. I'm not sure, but I did hear that Switzerland now uses the German system, thus compounding the problem.

Re:Science is complex.

[kassemi (872456)]

In high school I did some work with the Air Force Research Labs (they had some sort of student research program, which gave me access to loads of equipment and funding I would have gotten in no other way. We were working with aberration correction on optical equipment with holograms. A newspaper in the area sent a reporter to gather some information and write an article about what we were doing. We sat down with prepared diagrams, interesting samples and simple explainations as we gave notes to what seemed like a very intelligent reporter. The next week we read the article, and the reporter had missed everything entirely. They made it seem as if we had been doing research into a brand new field which we had invented. It gave us a warm feeling inside, but was obviously wrong. Mainstream news today isn't concerned with giving us accuracy, but rather about stirring the public, and keeping them asking questions that only their sources can answer. The only way to get accurate news in the science field we need to review the scientist's own, peer-reviewed papers. And even then, we need to be very skeptical until we see the research become popularly accurate.

Re:Science is complex.

[Rei (128717)]

As a journalist, I resent that remark. We're very good at spotting pseudoscientific mumbo jumbo. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment to make for my next piece; a scientist operating out of an annex of Grace Baptist Church is going to give a presentation on his electronium hat which harnesses the power of sunspots to produce cognitive radiation.

Much of the "bad science" is deliberate.

[Futurepower(R) (558542)]

"reporters usually avoided math and science"

Yes, but it seems to me that sometimes the scientists themselves give misleading information to journalists, possibly to make their work seem more important. Here's an example: Effort to Create Virtual Brain Begins [slashdot.org]. Here's another far worse example, in my opinion: Can Cell Phones Damage Our Eyes? [slashdot.org]. Here's my opinion about Dr. Henry Lai of the University of Washington: Distinguish between real science and junk science [slashdot.org].

Also, it seems to me that editors take advantage of readers by encouraging mis-interpretation so that they can get more readers. Here's an example of a story that didn't deserve attention: Report Claims Men More Intelligent Than Women [slashdot.org].

Re:Theory of the Professions

[hazem (472289)]

One reason (I'll let you decide if it's a good one) is that it can be used as a bridging point to talk to non-astrophysicists about what you do.

You can say you're studing gamma emissions at some location described by a bunch of numbers and letter (I have no idea how it's described, actually), or instead you say, "near the handle of the Big Dipper".

Sure, for the person you're talking to, they don't have any more real/useful information. But you've helped connect what you know to something they know, and from a PR point of view, that's more useful than you might imagine.

Part of the problem described in the article is that lay-people and scientist are separated by media that do a poor job of communicating between the two.

So, for that reason, I would say it's not a bad thing for an astrophysicist to know the constellations. Because while it has no real relevance to their work, it serves as a common context that serves as a bridge between them and everyone else.

Re:Science is complex.

[NanoGator (522640)]

" That alone should reveal that even trying to write about science is a wasted effort."

Um, no, all it reveals is that some people find entertainment in it. I wouldn't mind but you're using a rather un-scientific method to determine whether or not scientific articles are ever going to show up in newspapers.

Re:Science is complex.

[by Anonymous Coward]

Americans believe in so much nonsense that a new dark age can't be far off.

It is pretty annoying to see /.'ers get irked up about Science yet will ignore history as a method of study. When you use the term "dark age" as an analogy for modern times you have to compare the likenesses and differences between the two time periods.

First of all it is embedded in popular culture that the dark ages were times of superstition and religion. This is refuted by modern historians. Have a google search for yourself and find out. The term "dark ages" when used today by modern historians bespeaks that we really don't have much information about the early middle ages. That is all.

Secondly, if we are using the term "dark ages" as a historical analogy where are the likenesses and differences? Is there a difference between science then and now? What about religion? How does our society differ from the FUD of the "dark ages" that you think "can't be far off"? Do some independent thinking for yourself and analyse these questions and you'll probably find that the Media blows a lot of this out of proportion. Relatively speaking, the U.S. population has a pretty open Christian community that respects a lot of views. It isn't like the past. Today is completely different. Tomorrow more so.

Re:Science is complex.

[Overly Critical Guy (663429)]

This is something that has bugged me about the media. There is an anti-Christian and anti-South portrayal in nearly all popular media and all news stories. If you go to a Southern town in a movie, there will be rednecks with pickup trucks and getting into barfights or beating their wives. Christians are the punchlines of jokes, and their beliefs are actively mocked and parodied. The media is also anti-father. You rarely find a good father figure in movies or television or news stories. Either he's non-existent, or he's a deadbeat who left years ago, or a wifebeater, etc.

The media is also extremely racist, though they'd never fathom it. If a white girl disappears, it's national news. Lots of peopel disappear in our nation, but heaven forbid the white blonde girl in Aruba go missing. Meanwhile, a black girl could disappear, and no journalists would be around to cover it (see little black girl Rilya Wilson who just disappeared without a trace in Florida, who only Bill O'Reilly of all people covered).

I'm not from the South and I'm not a Christian, but these biases, which are just silently accepted by everyone because they're used to seeing them, make me sick. I'm just tired of it. I wish there were clear, direct, independent journalists to get some ACTUAL NEWS OF THINGS GOING ON IN THE WORLD. Not ratings-makers. I don't want to hear about "day 10 of Camp Casey." Please, tell me what is going on in the world. I know there is more out there.

Re:Christian persecution

[Stiletto (12066)]

One beef I have with your (relatively well thought out) post:

Upwords of 90% of the USA claims to be Christian. Many of our national holidays are Christian-based. Christians control all three branches of our federal government, and most state and local governments. Christian symbolism, including churches, crosses, billboards with Christian messages, etc., appear almost everywhere in the country virtually unopposed.

I don't think it's fair to complain about Christians being the butt of a few jokes. I wish my particular religious group was this persecuted.

Re:Science is complex.

[Chris Mattern (191822)]

Vikings, fall of the Roman Empire? you have our timeline screwed up. Roman Empire fell before the Dark ages. They converted to catholism in about the same era I would presume. Viking was no more as the Dark ages began. As the scandinavian population was forced to convert to christianity by their kings who thought a people united by christianity instead of living as tribes feuding with each other would be alot easier to controll and become rich of. These two events happened in around the same time about 400 to 600 AD. Coinsidently a few more centuries and we got the Dark ages. Wonder why everyone became Christians before the Dark ages?

Nope, sorry, your chronology is 100% wrong. The traditional date for the fall of Rome is 476, when the last Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by a Gothic chieftan, who instead of putting up another puppet emperor simply crowned himself King of Italy. Conversion of the Northlands to Christianity didn't even *begin* until the 800s, and wasn't completed until the 1100s. The coming of Christianity to the Vikings marks the end of the Dark Ages, not the beginning.

Chris Mattern

Re:Science is complex.

[Jonathan (5011)]

I don't have statistics on the matter, but most of the times I know of people reading a horroscope it is for amusement and entertainment, gossipy stuff. I think you're the one here reading too much into it.

It would be nice to think so, but take a look at your local Barnes & Noble -- chances are you'll find that the New Age section is larger than the Science section. People unfortunately take astrology and things like that seriously.

On Teaching Science to the Media

[jtangen (861406)]

There are many efforts directed at educating scientists about the journalistic process, but fewer that aim to educate journalists about science. One of the arguments for the imbalance is that it is more efficient for scientists to learn about media constraints than it would be for journalists to learn about science. Some argue that a lack of scientific knowledge on a journalist's behalf may actually benefit their interpretation of science publications, allowing the author to be less biased when translating the information for public consumption. Others believe that introducing science journalists to the scientific process will help to correct inaccuracies and omissions of important information in the media.

Re:On Teaching Science to the Media

[Herkum01 (592704)]

This reminds me a of a Simpsons episode were Lisa Simpson steals all the Teachers Editions of the school books. Without the teachers editions, none of the teachers had any answers.

The point? As a teacher who is dependent upon a book to give them the answers is not really much of a teacher; neither is a journalist that does learn the facts about what they are reporting. Readers do expect them to be experts but we certainly do not expect them to be totally dependent upon sources of dubious value or insight.

I disagree ...

[oostevo (736441)]

The author says that:

"It is my hypothesis that in their choice of stories, and the way they cover them, the media create a parody of science, for their own means. They then attack this parody as if they were critiquing science. This week we take the gloves off and do some serious typing."

Granted my sample space of random, anecdotal evidence is probably much smaller than his, but he seems to attribute the poor reporting to some sort of grand conspiracy, or at least malice.

From what I've seen of bad science reporting (my professors often give examples in lecture for us to laugh at), the cause is nowhere near as malevolent -- it's simply writers who are not educated enough about science and the methods of discovery that surround it trying to simplify for their readers a scientific breakthrough like they'd simplify a speech or debate.

And they just don't understand it anywhere near enough to avoid cropping out hugely important parts.

What is willful ignorance

[vena (318873)]

...if not malice?

Not to mention that, as the AC above touched on, they serve two masters -- one of whom pays their salary, and it's not you and me. It's not like there's any big backlash against their reporting of science, but as much as some of us may think we've evolved beyond it, there is still a lot of distrust, ignorance, and general animosity towards science in the world. The media exploits this for ratings, it's not a new accusation by any means. And when it keeps people ignorant, it's malicious in my book.

Re:I disagree ...

[bm_luethke (253362)]

You are making the mistake many do in looking at bias - there doesn't *have* to be a coordinated effort for what the original article wrote to be true. In fact it's very very rare and usually not productive/widespread for it to be coordinated. It's too transparent.

You need look no further than slashdot - it's moderation tends to be heavily biased in many topics. I can assure you (and a little looking around will confirm it if you do not already know) that there is no controlling entity that seeks to impliment this bias. Yet there is still a VERY strong bias for pretty much similar reasons through many of slashdots readers.

It's like an ant colony where there is no "hive mind" to control things. Each participant does it's thing and the whole ends up being something specific.

It can be that a very few want this and hire people who are like minded (that is usually self sustaining - you usually only hire people you think are correct). It may be that the nature of the job pushes people who think that way into the field. It may be just random chance that one day went over the saturation point - it could have went anyway and just chose that one. There are many other explaination than "Grand conspiracy" - group think happens all the time with no controlling authority or grand conspiracy.

Personally I think the original authors are correct. At least in my experiance (in real life and when I was in the university) 3/4 (and note the 3/4 - there were some very nice very broadly educated people there also) of the humanties distrusted science and journalist students were mostly humanaties people (rare person who is really interested in science but chooses to do non-science for a living - nature of the job chooses people who think that way). If they believe that to be reality, thier editors believe that to be reality, then it's just the nature of the beast.

Just as there is no grand conspiracy to make science minded people think and write that the "Earth is 4000 years old people" are crazy (and our writings are VERY biased against them because we think they are, at best, wrong), so too does the average journalist do that. That's why if you want news about science you need to look to specialised journalist - not the times, cnn, fox, abc, nbc, or whatever general news rag (and don't look at a science journal for general news - they are usually pretty poor at it).

If you want decent scientific articles..

[CyricZ (887944)]

.. stick with the science journals! At least there the articles will have been written by scientists, rather than mainstream media journalists. Let the everyday individual read the consumer newspaper and magazine articles, while people looking for correctness can go right to the source.

people are lazy and stupid

[roman_mir (125474)]

and that's about it.

But I read...

[curteck (910935)]

...a scientific article stating that 73.3% of all scientific studies and statistics are wrong...

Applies to everything, not just science...

[magarity (164372)]

Reporters who have never touched a rifle report on the military, reporters who grew up in the city report on farming, reporters who never broke a sweat at heavy labor report on construction projects...
 
Actually, this is a lot like public primary education where teachers without specialties in any field teach specific specialty classes.

Doesn't always matter.

[jd (1658)]

I'd be wary of a crime reporter who "kept current" by robbing the bank every time they went on location.

A science reporter doesn't have to know the subject, but they DO need to know how to do critical thinking. (Which, IMHO, is important for any journalist who wants to have integrity.)

Most importantly, they need to know:

• How certain are the scientists of their result?
  
  • 
    Statistics will usually be given with a percentage, which indicates the highest confidence level that can be given to the results. Because of the curious nature of statistics, these are given as the area of the tail on the stats chart, not the body, so the LOWER the percentage the better. A 5% confidence limit is generally regarded as evidence of a total LACK of confidence. You really want 1% or better. You'll see some results, though, with a confidence limit of 10% or even 20%.
    
  
  
• How well-designed was the research? (ie: How ambiguous was it?)
  
  • 
    The "null hypothesis" (what you are trying to disprove) should be something clearly-defined, with well-known bounds. It's preferable that the "null hypothesis" is whatever would be either whatever the system would naturally gravitate towards, or the norm, whichever you know better.
    

    
    In non-statistical studies, you use basically the same method. You assume that whatever you are testing shows nothing at all different, and attempt to falsify this hypothesis. It is extremely dangerous to go looking for something specific, because you'll normally find it - even when it's not there.
    

  
  
• Were the scientists unduly influenced? Did they have a disposition towards a certain result?
  
  • 
    You can pay a scientist - or anyone else - to say anything you like, if you've enough money. What they say, then, is important only if they have credibility as an impartial observer. As most science, these days, is funded by corporations, this is unbelievably scarce. However, paid-for work has zero credibility unless it can be verified by an impartial observer. At which point, it is still the impartial observer who matters, anyway.
    
  
  
• Do the results actually say what the scientist(s) say they do?
  
  • 
    This one is hard to guague, if you're not in the field, but you can look for tell-tale signs of a problem. If you can't see the methods used, if they didn't keep logs or lab notes of what they did, if they are vague about how you get from the data to the conclusions - these should tip off any competent journalist that something isn't right.
    
  
  

The wrong guys write.

[postbigbang (761081)]

About 80% of the zines on the stands are owned by just a half dozen publishers these days. Their job is to sell zines, not benefit scientific understanding, unless their readership has some decided and saleable interest.

Journalists, bless them, aren't often scientifically trained. Look at the poor quality of the computer industry zines of the late 90's and early 00's. Most them are gone, and good riddance, These guys were better at covering sports than bus architectures and burgeoning CPU and OS monopolies. Getting scientists to write cogent articles for people that aren't buying an academic/discipline article is really tough. They get no recognition for that, just some cash. Only a few scientists can cross over to mainstream writing and be successful more than their research career gave them. So, there's a good reason why we don't get good science writing: publishers don't understand the need for quality; researchers are busy publishing in journals within their disciplines, and journalists make rotten scientists-- but better beer drinkers.

Because Aliens Cause Global Warming...

[WombatControl (74685)]

Michael Chricton had an excellent piece on the decline of science reporting in an address at Caltech [crichton-official.com]. His observations should be required reading because they get to the heart of what's wrong with "science" these days. (I use science in quote marks because it's only tangentally related to real science.) A sample:

Once you abandon strict adherence to what science tells us, once you start arranging the truth in a press conference, then anything is possible. In one context, maybe you will get some mobilization against nuclear war. But in another context, you get Lysenkoism. In another, you get Nazi euthanasia. The danger is always there, if you subvert science to political ends.

That is why it is so important for the future of science that the line between what science can say with certainty, and what it cannot, be drawn clearly-and defended.

Hell, I remember as a kid reading "50 Things You Can Do To Save The Earth" or some other such claptrap that argued that some massive amount of the rainforest disappared every day - and a little multiplication found that if such a figure were true the rainforest (and all forests on Earth) would have disappared in a year.

Whether "intelligent design" or "global warming", science is being used as a tool of politics - which is something it is not and never should be.

Crichton = Hack novelist spreading F.U.D.

[StefanJ (88986)]

Here's a nice analysis of the dubious claims made by Crichton in his speeches and in the footnotes of his novel State of Fear.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=74 [realclimate.org]

Re:Because Aliens Cause Global Warming...

[Beryllium Sphere(tm) (193358)]

>Whether "intelligent design" or "global warming", science is being used as a tool of politics - which is something it is not and never should be.

You can't do this by reading the mainstream press, but on the web you can disentangle scientific information from politics by reading what climatologists think [realclimate.org]. That site draws a sharp line between political questions (should we ratify the Kyoto treaty?) and scientific questions (why do ice ages end before CO2 levels go up?).

Re:Because Aliens Cause Global Warming...

[ari_j (90255)]

Domain name: realclimate.net

Registrant Contact:
Environmental Media Services
Betsy Ensley ([e-mail])
+1.2024636670
Fax: none
1320 18th St, NW
5th Floor
Washington, DC 20036
US

Looks political to me.

2 things were spot on

[i_should_be_working (720372)]

1) 'Breakthroughs' overhyped as if they're about to change everything. We see this all the time on /. 'Breakthrough in quantum-computing/ nanotechnology/ quantum-cryptography' The stories are overhyped 'cause it gets readers. Then here we get a bunch of armchair scientists hypothesising about the terahertz fast, petabyte large, unhackable computer everyone will have next year.

2) The media focusing on one or two scientists as if they have the ultimate say in how things are. Ignoring the fact that scientists aren't some monolithic beast with one scientist at the head.

I get the distinct impression

[JChung2006 (894379)]

that the article's author just got dumped by his "humanity graduate student" significant other.

Actually not that hard to understand

[Reality Master 101 (179095)]

You can apply this to any subject of journalism, not just science. There is no grand conspiracy, as the poster seems to think.

Journalists exist to be published. That is their function -- that's what they love, to see their name in print. They don't really care what they say exactly; they only care that their article pleases their editors, which in turn sells more newspapers or magazines.

I got a real education when I lived next door to a fairly high-up Sports Illustrated reporter. In watching him do his work, he would basically try and find an angle, and then shape the facts to fit his angle. Technically, he wouldn't "lie", but he would definitely flake and form things to give the impression that he'd decided to write ahead of time. That was generally for background pieces that he would write, but even for sporting events he followed that formula. He would write his article before the event had even finished, sometimes with multiple endings in case things went for one outcome or another (this is Standard Operating Procedure in the industry).

In realizing his "algorithm" to producing articles, I began to look at other journalist articles. And lo and behold -- I saw the same sort of pattern. When you realize this, you can see the "angle" they've decided to write, and the pattern shows up like a flashing red light. All the successful ones do this. They decide ahead of time what would make an exciting article to write.

This is why people get misquoted all the time. It's because when a journalist talks to someone, they aren't interested in what that person has to say, they want specific quotes that they can use to back up whatever they are writing.

The publication, not the college major, is the key

[orac2 (88688)]

I think the type of publication is a very significant contributor to the prevalance of Bad Science reporting, even more so than the article's thesis of "Humanties Majors run amok."

If you look at many general interest news publications, whether they be monthly magazines or daily papers, you'll find they don't often even have a dedicated science reporter. Even when they claim to, it's really a "Health" reporter, who's often much more likely to cover the latest exercise craze or green tea fad than actual metabolic research from the NIH (incidently, at least one major science journalism prize now specifically excludes "health" articles for this reason.) Even when they do have science reporters, the Guardian's article makes a good point: unlike the financial or politics pages, the science beat reporter must assume no, or very little, prior knowledge of science, and this is enforced by their editors. While this may (sadly) be a perfectly reasonable thing to do, as scientific literacy among the public is appalling, you can see how it's a vicious cycle kind of thing. And it's the rare general interest publication indeed that would have more than one staff reporter or editor dedicated to covering science.

But I think there's still good science journalism out there, in the science and tech magazines, like New Scientist or Discover. Not only can you assume the audience knows what the terms "volt" or "DNA" mean, you can get much more space to give a real explanation of what's going on. While stories are still supposed to be timely, they're not usually tied to the daIly press release cycle either. And this type of publication is much more likley to employ people with science backgrounds. Here I should state my possible bias: I'm a science journalist for a monthly emerging technology magazine with a university education in experimental physics! But I should say that one of our best writers here, if not the best, was an English major in college. But after a few years now on the semiconductor beat he probably knows more about, say, dielectrics, than I ever did, not least because he had the time to learn, time often in short supply when one is the sole science reporter on a newsstand publication, and so have to cover the entire scientific waterfront. Reporters for science/tech publications can usually focus on a few areas at a time and really learn them in depth, and that makes a huge difference.

This is why I feel the publication makes a much bigger difference than some seething secret Romantic resentment from journalists to the quality of science reporting. It's the publishers and editors which set the standards for articles, not individual reporters, after all.

Humanics

[Doc Ruby (173196)]

The real problem is the perpetuation of a war between "science" and "humanities" students/grads/researchers/writers. Even this Guardian article points its (stereotypical) criticism at "humanities" people, implicitly defending "science" people. Humanities writers, including many "social scientists" like historians (and especially the underlooked lawyers in that class), are just as antipathetic.

The division itself is a disservice to each profession. Scientists have to communicate science with humans, even other scientists. And humanities workers, even mere newpaper reporters, are governed by physical laws of evidence, causality, statistics. We're all in it together. And we all have to realize that we've each got our own languages, from mathematics to hiphop, that are just ways of representing the real world we're all struggling to understand and share with each other. Prioritizing one of those aspects is no excuse for neglecting competence in another. And seeing the struggle as scientist against humanist discards the real struggle, against misunderstanding and ignorance, thereby working for the enemy.

Science, media, politics and hype

[Ogemaniac (841129)]

Unfortunately, science via the media is almost worthless, and there is a pretty broad consensus around here from what I can tell. It is even worse when politics are involved. Here is my reasoning as to why.

1: Scientists who work in a particular field are self-selected to work in that field. Of course a cancer researcher thinks fighting cancer is important, or a global warming researcher thinks protecting the environment is important. This is not meant to attack these people, but I hope that you realize that one should take account of this when listening to their opinions. The result of this is one layer of hype for their research.

2. The second layer of hype is funding. If you want money to cure cancer, save the planet, or build better Legos, well, the first step is to scream bloody murder about how big the problem is and how wonderful your solution is. Like it or not, but scientists have every reason to hype their research - and as a research scientist myself, I can assure you that this is the way things really happen. This is a second layer of hype.

3: Then we get to the media, which receives this already-double-hyped information from the scientists. Well, what is the media's job? Selling information...and we all know their basic strategy is....hype!. So the "science" the average Joe reads in the newspaper is now triple-hyped.

4: Finally, we get to the big issue - politics. Most politicians get their information not directly from scientists, but from various media sources, lobby groups, and think tanks. But as noted, this information is already triple-hyped. Do you want to guess what the politician does? He/she then selects the information that best backs his or her position, and then hypes it.

By the time your favorite politician spews anything related to "science", you can be rest assured that it has been hyped so many times that it now bears no resemblance to anything approximating fact, and should be duly ignored. Before you start finger pointing, please get over the fact that both parties do it and are equally as bad (research anything related to Republicans vs Global Warming, or Democrats vs genetics/race/sex for all the anti-science details).

US Centric Post

[rolfwind (528248)]

Perhaps it has to do with our daily TV & pop Magazine (Times, Life) and Newspapers that assume we're stupid and write/talk/present things to us as if we're at the 6th grade level.

If that's all you see, read, or hear 90% of the time - it will eventually filter down into your communication unless you actively prevent it. It will eventually spread to all media.

The british newspapers, I'm told, write at a 12th grade level.

If you ever watched the Daily Show where they showed the difference between George Bush's Social Security town hall meetings and the one PM Tony Blair did before his election - you will see the stark contrast in how the media treats it's viewers - intelligent adults vs. idiotic grown children.

(In short, it was 1000000 x more confrontational with people asking intelligent questions versus here where everybody had to kiss GWB's balls to ask a stupid & simplistic question)

I tried to find the clip but I can't find it.

The vicious circle of reporting

[BlightThePower (663950)]

As a scientist myself I'm very unhappy about the way the reporting of science has created a vicious circle. Journalists misreport science, the article comes up with some arguments as to why but in the end I'm tempted to think it has a lot to do with trying to summarise very complex things when you don't entirely understand them. But scientists are also to blame here; there is a general lack of both ability and interest in communicating our work more widely (the phrase "media don" is considered pretty offensive in certain circles). Unfortunately the kind of climate the journalists have created for us makes this venture even less appealing than it was in the first place. The eventual result is that people like myself don't like talking to journalists because we don't want to be involved in perpetrating a load of hype and making ourselves look unscrupulous in the eyes of our peers. The answer is probably getting scientists to try to write their own "popular" articles directly and to facilitate this would require that the systems that measure academic performance in terms of publication in impact-rated journals begins to pay some sort of recognition to activities of wider dissemination. Right now, you could be on the news once a week and have your own TV show discussing your work and it would do less (technically at least) to help you keep your academic job than publishing a two-page note in the back of an obscure journal. You might say that an academics job is to produce new research, not go on the TV. I think this is where the real question lies; what role should a scientist be occupying in the 21st century?

Why is astronomy good?

[Fractal Dice (696349)]

What interests me is how good astronomy reporting seems to be compared to all other science reporting. It faces the same guantlet as other articles, avoids the math and loves to fear-monger possible disasters, but somehow it seems to communicate the more-or-less current theories in a way that seems understandable, interesting, even inspiring.

Is it a difference in how the media approaches the subject? Astronomy seems to have an aura of purity (biology seems to only be reported to create ecological or evolutionary flamewars; medicine research sounds more like infomercials than news; engineering ... well, doesn't exist in the media). Have astronomers learned how to package their data/analysis in nice neat packages?

Re:Bad Science? More like bad politics!

[MightyMartian (840721)]

I don't think Conservatives are stupid or Liberals are smart. I do think that the US conservative movement has spent too much time whoring itself to anti-intellectual religionists who haven't managed to wake up out of the Dark Ages and realize that science, unlike they're small-minded, superstitious world view, actually produces results. The United States did not become a superpower through prayer, it got there because it produced or imported researchers. Perhaps when the Conservative movement gets up the guts to tell the Evangelicals, including GWB, that being Conservative doesn't mean having to deny reality that doesn't fit with a Biblical interpretation which could best be described as simply idiotic.

On the other hand, I've seen a number of liberals who buy into crystals, magnets, feng shui, chiropracty and all other sorts of nonsense, and that sort of thing is just as harmful as anything any Young Earth Creationist or Intelligent Design advocate is going to pass off as Truth.

Don't you think science education is best served by keeping psuedo-science and barely veiled religious dogma out of the classroom?

Re:Bad Science? More like bad politics!

[CyricZ (887944)]

Don't worry. Science will still progress. It will just be in places like China and Europe, where actual scientific progress and achievement is considered more important than appealing to everybody's religious belief system.

Re:Irony.

[zippthorne (748122)]

I thought we agreed not to worry so much about the difference between "hypothesis" and "theory" so we wouldn't have to use the "hypothesis of evolution" to destroy the "opiate of the people" and create our socialist paradise.

Re:Like a proper little Darwin

[Anthony (4077)]

So you've read Darwin's works then. Which parts were you refering to?