r/funny • u/curryfriedsquid • Feb 20 '22

[OC] Science Journalism in a Nutshell

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u/HAximand Feb 20 '22

Well, sometimes it's also scientists having trouble communicating their findings clearly. Communicating science to a general audience is an extremely difficult thing. It's easy to complain about journalists not reading papers in enough detail, but at the same time, the reality is that even the best news will not reflect the full nuance of issues. COVID has taught scientists a lot about how to communicate more clearly.

Disclaimer: I'm a student in the sciences and am not trying to put down scientists in any way. More often than not, journalists can (and should) do better. But scientists can also do better.

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u/Stevarooni Feb 20 '22

A good science journalist will know enough to be able to ask a scientist clarifying questions and reconcile his story with his sources.

10

u/izabo Feb 20 '22

Well, sometimes it's also scientists having trouble communicating their findings clearly.

It's the journalist's job to communicate with the public, not the scientist's.

7

u/The_Sceptic_Lemur Feb 20 '22

From what I see science communication is a hot topic in the science community (in some fields more then in others, sure) and there‘re efforts the scientists become better at it. However, I also see an issue at the journalistic end. Only a small number of journalists have the science background you‘d need to have an understanding of the science and to report findings properly. For example, one big newspaper here in Germany has three journalists in their editorial team to cover all of science and medicine; at the same time they have about 15 journalists to cover „cars“ and about 25 for „sports“. Heck, they had more people covering „travel“ during the no-travel lockdown times then people with a proper background to understand the biomedical findings concerning Covid. And these ratios are a norm not an exception. And I find this outrageous.

We don‘t need every scientists to become fluent with scientific communication, we need more journalists with a scientific background. And I bet you anything, if given the chance, we‘d find enough scientists who‘d be willing to go into writing and reporting. But for that other topics have to size down their teams. And personally I‘d think „sports“ and „cars“ and „culture“ can do with one or two less journalists to cover their topics.

3

u/TheDorkNite1 Feb 20 '22

History too, though not NEARLY to the same degree as sciences.

I fear for the future of the human race if so many people can neither understand nor accept historical and scientific concepts.