Talk:Science journalism

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16.2.2006 from Germany: "relatively new" - if I had never heard this before, I might think it is a two-year-old thing. Science J. was certainly /perhaps appearing in the US before it came to Europe, anyway, - in our case here even the research on Science Journalism is relativly old. THIS boomed more than twanty years ago. Which is of course recent compared to par example Gutenberg, the one who invented the printing in our area.

[edit] POV

I removed:

A sharp line should be drawn between scientific truth and truth in the news media. The first exist only in a specific context, relative to past research and discoveries, and are always subject to review and revision according to the scientific method. There are uncertainties associated with scientific discoveries, which can be accepted as working theories if, for instance, they have practical applications that help validate them. With this attitude, a scientist would say, "with the information we have today, it seems that...".

Probabilities are in principle not good sources of news, and consequently the scientific approach to "the truth" is usually not adopted in news media. Reporters hunt for commanding headlines, clear-cut statements, and certain information, although it may not be as certain as advertised. The journalist, in this role, acts as a translator of new scientific information into the reality of news media.

I agree with every word, but there are WP:NPOV issues here. Are there any good books we can quote on the mindlessness of science journalism? JFW | T@lk 12:51, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Hi. This is my text, which I acutally paraphrased from an article (I have no memory of the source, though). Now that I look at, it does seem a bit POV, although it is not mindlessness that I had in mind, but a difference in intentions. Maybe reworking the text would suffice? I planned to add other sections, but have been having time constraints. Karol 20:12, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

It is completely mindless. Alarmist headlines and inaccurate, context-free reports. "Great cancer breakthrough" in mice studies, "cure for heart attacks found" in a monocellular layer, "eating bananas gives you cancer" if you eat 30 a day, "exhaust fumes linked to rare cancer" so why report it if the cancer is rare? Science journalism is completely irresponsible, creates fear in society and is fully unaccountable. Every time a big scare hits the papers the doctors can't leave their surgeries until late in the evenings. Compare MMR vaccine. Mindless. JFW | T@lk 21:07, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, that's a point :) Karol 23:36, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

As a science journalist I strongly disagree. You shouldn't generalize from your pique at a few specific stories to the entire field.

There is a great diversity in science journalism. Some science journalism is written by PhD-level scientists for other scientists, some is written by people who are completely ignorant of basic science, and most falls in the middle.

While I agree with you that many news reports hype minor research, in my own reporting I try to scale back the hype and get quotes from other scientists who disagree. I distinguish clearly among in vitro studies, mouse studies, Phase I and II clincial trials, randomized controlled trials, case-controlled studies, evidence-based reviews and consensus reports. Not only should you report the latest research in JAMA, you should also report the editorial in JAMA that qualifies the latest research. I had an editor who forbid the use of "breakthrough" in his newsletter, and I never use the word myself.

The big cut in science journalism is between publications for professionals and publications for the general public. The professional publications are much better, because their readers have greater demands and can spot the mistakes. Most major peer-reviewed journals have news sections these days. Look at the news in Science, Nature, New Scientist, The Scientist, JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, BMJ, Lancet, Science News, Scientific American. Your charge is completely unfounded for them. I would challenge you to find an example from those publications (there are some but very few, and they are quickly corrected). See how *they* covered MMR.

The daily news publications that I follow, like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, etc., do a good job if a science reporter is assigned to the story, but some newspapers take the philosophy that a good generalist reporter can cover anything, which sometimes works but sometimes gets the result that you describe.

Before you judge these news sources, you must state the standard or endpoint that you're going to judge them by. You can't just say, "I disagree with this story so it's bad journalism." What should science journalism do? Once again, there are many different answers depending on the publication and its audience.

You say you want them to report the uncertainties. Fair enough. These professional science publications certainly do report the uncertainties and diversity of professional opinion exactly as scientists see it. If you don't like the Evening Standard, read New Scientist and BMJ instead.

--162.83.212.94 20:57, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Call for reliable sources

Hello everyone. I'm going to be doing some research on this article because it clearly needs some more information and there is definitely clear research out there. Help with good references to search will be much appreciated. I added a line there already and will provide sources soon. Thanks AlanBarnet 06:06, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hilarious!

they may have been scientists or medical doctors before becoming journalists

Yeah, I can see why someone would take such a severe pay cut. I call BS on this being a statistically relevant portion of science journalists. I call BS even on science journalists typically having any non-trivial scientific training.

Journalism tends to have a stronger bias towards truth

What does this even mean? That science has a stronger bias towards falsity?

--76.202.226.195 (talk) 18:12, 30 May 2008 (UTC)