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TagScience writers

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TV News studio - recording and broadcasting media in a modern set design with blue background for journalists. Generative AI

How Media Have Helped To Corrupt Science

Traditional popular media, science media, and science journalists have all helped create a situation where we can’t afford to Trust the Science!

Last week, I talked about five ways traditional media changed in the age of the internet. They boil down to this: Major media no longer really represent a vast number of average audience members so we must largely develop and curate our own news sources. Here are three items I came across that might help illustrate what that means. An article by James B. Meigs in City Journal chronicles the way in which government officials were very much less than honest with the public about COVID’s causes and cures. That’s a story worth telling. But for now, I’d like to focus on his account of the way media generally showed zero skepticism and played a significant role in generating and Read More ›

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The arched stone colonnade with lanterns

When Science Writers Say Things We Hardly Expected…

Some science writers are monotonous boosters for Answers from Science but the better ones challenge themselves, and thus challenge us too

Science writers have the sort of relationship to science that automotive writers do to cars. Readers often hear a thumbs up! or down! about one trend, theory, or school of thought. But in the rush and press of news, we less often hear a philosophical reflection that goes beyond cliches like “Science is self-correcting.” But, every now and again, we do. Here are three recent examples. The “Scientific Method” is Rather Messier than We Think… Philip Ball, author of Beautiful Experiments: An Illustrated History of Experimental Science (University of Chicago 2023), discusses the messy truth about how theories win out in a recent article at Nautilus: Scientists often assert that their practice is governed by the “scientific method,” in which Read More ›

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Female politician talking on media press conference, public relations, event

Why Science News Sucks — A Response to a Disgusted Physicist

There are reasons why science journalists can't usually be skeptical in the way that other journalists can. Here are some of them

In her usual forthright manner, theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder asks, by blog post and Youtube video, “Why does science news suck so much? It’s hardly an original question but among her suggested answers are some thoughtful reflections, including 9. Don’t forget that science is fallible A lot of media coverage on science policy remembers that science is fallible only when it’s convenient for them. When they’ve proclaimed something as fact that later turns out to be wrong, then they’ll blame science. Because science is fallible. Facemasks? Yeah, well, we lacked the data. Alright. But that’d be more convincing if science news acknowledged that their information might be wrong in the first place. The population bomb? Peak oil? The new ice Read More ›