"news" reports on health and science finding ~ pro or con and why?

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"news" reports on health and science finding ... - 9/10/2006 8:09:16 AM

MistressWolfen

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I have noticed a number of threads (some become quite heated discussions) that have been started because a "news" source has picked up a piece of academic research and sensationalised it. Often the "news" source has taken a paper title or hypothesis and used it out of context or with no background research.

My queries to all the gentle readers of this forum are:

Do you view this as a positive (exposing people to scientific research even if inaccurate)?
or
Do you view it as negative (distribution of mis-information)?

Either way what are your thoughts on the journalistic ethics involved?

The example I would forward is a recent sensational Guardian article on "Persistent Vegative State" in patients.http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1867567,00.html

I forward this example because this article could well influence the thinking of policy makers in regard to a very crucial matter, life and death (passive euthanasia). I look forward to all your thoughts on this.

Note: the intent of this post is to examine delivery of scientific information through the popular printed media NOT to debate euthanasia :)

hmmm I can't make that link work it was the
For first time, doctors communicate with patient in persistent vegetative state
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Friday September 8, 2006
The Guardian
maybe that will work

< Message edited by MistressWolfen -- 9/10/2006 8:14:26 AM >

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 8:20:42 AM

WyrdRich

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Watch the news coverage of clean-up efforts after any sort of disaster and you'll notice that most reporters don't have the common sense to puzzle out the difference between a front-end loader and a backhoe. We are supposed to believe they understand scientific research?

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 8:27:19 AM

Rule

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Let people discuss whatever they want.

It hurts me when someone in his naivety says something that is blatantly stupid, but let him talk anyway.

Science is the prerogative not of a few social retard scientists in their ivory towers, but the prerogative of all humans. It usually is fairly easy to determine who has something worthwile to contribute to a discussion and who does not. Other people will pick up on that.

Edited to add: Oh, incompetent science journalists. Yes, they exist. I even complained about one of them once. If you are a paying customer, I advise to ask the news service for a refund; that will if honored quickly weed out the incompetents.

< Message edited by Rule -- 9/10/2006 8:33:54 AM >

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 8:34:31 AM

MistressWolfen

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Thanks for your statements Rule, would really enjoy reading your answer to the queries and your thoughts on the ethics behind them.

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 8:36:35 AM

MistressWolfen

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I like that point WyrdRich, created an image of reporting techniques as heavy duty equipment *chuckles*

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 8:37:17 AM

KenDckey

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I don't trust most of the media reports. I have been in situations where the media got it totally wrong. I have also been in situations where they have got it right but those were fewer.

I also agree that they sensationalize reports to sell their service.

for every new "discovery" there are also studies that show that they are wrong. Usually it takes lots of research to prove/disprove the originah hypothisis. If it were all that easy then we should just go ahead and do whatever researchers say the first time out.

As to putblic opinion and open debate I have my doubts until ALL the research is complete and it has been verified or disproven.

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 8:40:47 AM

MistressWolfen

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So you have first hand experience in being a part of, or misinterpreted through sensationalist reporting Ken? Interesting, would like to hear a bit about that *nods*

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 9:10:18 AM

lauren0221

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The media, like other for-profit organizations, is about making money. Sensationalism sells. Boring truth - not so much.

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 9:14:18 AM

Rule

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quote:

ORIGINAL: MistressWolfen
Do you view this as a positive (exposing people to scientific research even if inaccurate)?

Yes, that is a positive. The smart ones will smell something fishy and turn to primary science articles and do their own research and thinking to get at the truth. Negative feedback loops and natural selection will take care of the rest.

Besides the science journalists, the scientists themselves also can be at fault. I myself have turned at least several times to a primary science article to confirm that the authors committed a stupidity. (I am not impressed by the peer review process.)
Nor am I impressed by the tens of thousands of erroneous interpretations that scientists produce to explain their observations.

quote:

ORIGINAL: MistressWolfen
or
Do you view it as negative (distribution of mis-information)?

No, I do not view that as a negative. Some people must be assumed to be responsible persons that do not gullibly believe the news that is dished out to them. The gullible others should not partake of the news at all.

quote:

ORIGINAL: MistressWolfen
Either way what are your thoughts on the journalistic ethics involved?

Those are the responsiblity of the science editor. (I assume at least that any news service worth its salt has a science editor or consultant.) If stupidity is published it is of course a scam, but the paying customer will vote with his feet. I myself ended after a dozen years my subscription to the weekly magazine New Scientist after it published a number of imbecile philosophical main articles.

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 9:30:38 AM

KenDckey

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quote:

ORIGINAL: MistressWolfen

So you have first hand experience in being a part of, or misinterpreted through sensationalist reporting Ken? Interesting, would like to hear a bit about that *nods*

I was in HS and at the State Fair. there was a fire and I was the only journalist on the scene. I took pics and turned them and a story into the paper. I got in exchange an A in class and a byline for my pic. The story didn't come out anything like I turned in. The facts of what I saw didn't match with the report. It has been totally sensationalized

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 9:34:17 AM

MistressWolfen

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I quit purchasing New Scientist very similiar reasons Rule *sighs*

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 9:40:39 AM

MistressWolfen

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quote:

ORIGINAL: KenDckey
... The story didn't come out anything like I turned in. The facts of what I saw didn't match with the report. It has been totally sensationalized

On what grounds do you think they did it Ken? Was it for readership appeal or was there a political agenda (i.e. fault, safety carelessness) for the sensationalization? I know you may not have considered it as a young man, but in hindsight what are your thoughts?

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 9:47:36 AM

outlier

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MW,

Long Post, True Illustration:

I was a part of a small group who got a tour of the media
room for the earthquake lab at Cal Tech. So this is where
science deals with the media, and the news media with science.

Cutting the description short, it was a rectangle with a small
conference table, a lectern with overhead lighting a window
into the lab full of computers and desks, and one section of
seismic drums, labeled as to location of the remote sensor.
This drum display was floor to ceiling and 5 or 6 drums wide.

We asked what happens when an earthquake occurs and the
intern giving the tour said the information comes to the lab and
the computers start to work on it. Somebody asked, " So you
come out here and take the information off the drums and then
key it in...." No, said the intern the drums are obsolete. We
don't use the drums, the information goes right into the computers."

"Then why the wall of drums?"

"Well" said the intern, "The media really like the drums. They said
thats what people expect to see."

And there you have it. The media is not in the business of giving
you the news. They are in the business of selling your eyeballs to
their sponsors. And they will give you whatever it is they think
you expect to (or want to) see.

This was several years ago and the last time I looked at the news
after a quake there was someone there at Cal Tech standing in
front of that wall of useless drums. What the media don't want you to
do is go to the Cal Tech website and see the map the computers
are drawing from the information. Because then you would not
need them (the media) as your source for news.

Outlier

< Message edited by outlier -- 9/10/2006 9:50:20 AM >

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 9:51:28 AM

MistressWolfen

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Interesting illustration, and one that opens the scientific community' delivery to speculation.

p.s. I like your sig line outlier *chuckles*

< Message edited by MistressWolfen -- 9/10/2006 9:52:48 AM >

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 10:13:05 AM

NastyDaddy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: MistressWolfen

I have noticed a number of threads (some become quite heated discussions) that have been started because a "news" source has picked up a piece of academic research and sensationalised it. Often the "news" source has taken a paper title or hypothesis and used it out of context or with no background research.

Where have you been lately MW? Have you not realized the media has evolved into a sensationalized operation of and for ratings? It stopped being "news" back about the time when news reporters started becoming celebrities and paparazzi started riding motorcycles.

Anyone with any real interest in the subject will do a bit of investigating on their own, particularly if it involves sciences or religions.

Notwithstanding, academic researchers are often used as "stand-in" experts, or consultants if you will. With the trend of celebrity newscasters and reporters, often the subject being reported becomes very vaugue in the celebrity news reporter's hands. I'm sure they have their political and bureaucratic wickets and need to have their unbiased reporting monitored by senior editorial staffs who are under no form of pressure and simply adhere to a philosophy of reporting "news" as "news".... remember, you saw it here first folks!

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/10/2006 10:52:40 AM

juliaoceania

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I do not trust the media to give me factual unbiased information. It is better to read vetted academic journals and their abstracts in my opinion then to rely on broadcast journalism. Printed media is slightly better, especially science mags.

< Message edited by juliaoceania -- 9/10/2006 10:53:25 AM >

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 9/11/2006 9:46:53 AM

philosophy

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surely all reporting, whether in a usual journalistic sense or a more formal scientific sense needs to be seen as only potentially factual? Given that the articles are not written by robots they have the damn near certainty of human bias built in...... looking for a wholly factual piece of journalism may well be impossible..........

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 2/15/2007 6:42:39 PM

outlier

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edited, duplicate post

< Message edited by outlier -- 2/15/2007 6:48:46 PM >

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 4/5/2010 1:00:09 AM

mydestiny2043

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Sorry it took me so long to respond,but it's the first chance I've had to sit down and review since this afternoon. And I agree with you it's not about actually getting out factual information more for giving the sponcers what they think we should know.I had my first epiphany of sorts to that after 911 when a friend turned me on to a documentory called loose change.That blew me away.

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RE: "news" reports on health and science find... - 4/5/2010 5:11:47 AM

kiwisub12

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The media has gotten away from reporting the news. to making it and the tv press is the worst. A car chase is not news worthy for a nation the size of the US, but they will show one - for some reason always in California - until I change the channel. Taking scientific studies and sensationalising them is one of the more unethical things they do, unethical because they take one man or one teams results on one study and present them as fact - proven and written in concrete - and people take that as fact because if it wasn't right they wouldn't report it, right?

I can think of a couple of cases in my field - I remember them because they affected me - where the media reported distorted or unreliable studies and people ran with them. It cost money, went to court and made lawyers good money.

Personally, I wish they would go back to the days when reporters reported news, not opinions presented as news.

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