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Science journalism

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Emma Reh (1896-1982) was a science journalist for Science Service in the 1920s and 30s. Here she is reporting on an archaeological site in Oaxaca for Science News.
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Science journalism conveys reporting about science to the public. The field typically involves interactions between scientists, journalists, and the public.

Aim of science journalism

Science values detail, precision, the impersonal, the technical, the lasting, facts, numbers and being right. Journalism values brevity, approximation, the personal, the colloquial, the immediate, stories, words and being right now. There are going to be tensions.

— Quentin Cooper, of BBC Radio 4’s Material World, [1]

The aim of a science journalist is to render the very detailed, specific, and often jargon-laden information produced by scientists into a form that non-scientists can understand and appreciate, while still communicating the information accurately. One way science journalism can achieve this is by avoiding an information deficit model of communication. This model assumes a top-down, one-way direction of communicating information that limits an open dialogue between knowledge holders and the public.

Science journalists often do not have training in the scientific disciplines that they cover. Some have earned a degree in a scientific field before becoming journalists or exhibited talent in writing about science subjects. However, good preparation for interviews and even deceptively simple questions such as "What does this mean to the people on the street?" can often help a science journalist develop material that is useful for the intended audience.

Status of science journalism

With budget cuts at major newspapers and other media, there are fewer working science journalists than before. Blog-based science reporting is filling in to some degree, but has problems of its own.[2]

Types of science journalism

There are many different examples of scientific literature. A few examples include:

Notable science journalists

Criticism

Science journalists regularly come under criticism for falsely reporting scientific stories. Very often, such as with climate change, this leaves the public with the impression that disagreement within the scientific community is much greater than it actually is.[3] Science is based on experimental evidence, testing and not dogma, and disputation is a normal activity.[4]

Science journalism finds itself under a critical eye due to the fact that it combines the necessary tasks of a journalist along with the investigative process of a scientist.

One reason science journalists appear to disagree is that science journalists can begin as either a scientist or a journalist and transition to the other. Science is communication of how the world works. Journalists who become scientists are more likely to find their information based on what’s new in the topic field. Journalists without a background and expertise in the topic they write about have a more limited amount of knowledge to communicate.[5]

One area in which science journalists seem to support varying sides of an issue is in risk communication. Science journalists may choose to highlight the amount of risk that studies have uncovered while others focus more on the benefits depending on audience and framing.

See also

References

  1. ^ Science and the media – an uncomfortable fit By Sallie Robbins
  2. ^ "Unpopular Science", by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, The Nation, Aug. 17, 2009
  3. ^ http://tigger.uic.edu/~pdoran/012009_Doran_final.pdf
  4. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/series/badscience
  5. ^ Zivkovic, Bora."The Line Between Science and Journalism is Getting Blurry Again","Science Progress", 21 December 2010.

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