Recommendations for Further Information

For the ones interested in the topic of science and media I prepared a few links.

v     Science Media Centre

This is the official page of Science Media Centre, mentioned previously regarding the article of its director Fiona Fox. The page offers a service for journalists who want to promote science in a proper way, but it is also useful for readers interested in professional opinion. In the section “Press Releases”, there are experts’ answers to current media science news, which may be educational and interesting (e.g. reaction to the concerns over nuclear energy after Japanese earthquake)

v     Bad Science

This page, previously mentioned in the article assessing Goldacre’s “Don’t dumb me down”, is unique critical piece definitely worth attention. The page’s description begins with “Each week, Ben Goldacre skewers the enemies of reason.” It threatens journalists who distort science because of sensation, politicians who lie and ignore facts and advertisers who misuse science. Goldacre critically approaches current media-science issues and explains them in detail.

v     True about Mice

Remember the mice “turning gay”? This analytical and comprehensible article in Scientific American explains the results of the study mentioned in my second posting and points to how media misinterpreted it. I recommend reading this long article mainly because it is a great example of clash between scientific results and their representation in media. The author not only criticizes misunderstanding of the study, but also courageous statements of the scientists who conducted it.

v     Webcomic

Finally, I would really recommend looking at this part of XKCD webcomic series. XKCD is a popular entertaining webcomic dealing mainly with scientific topics, so it is often incomprehensible for an internet user not interested in science. This part deals with media sensationalizing and exaggerating small scientific results. 

How the Love of Science Should be Spread

Finding analytical articles about the problem of media incorrectly presenting science is not exactly an easy task. Anyway, there are some, and I can especially recommend “Sharing the love of science: thoughts on Beddington”. It was published in February 2011 on the blog of Fiona Fox, who is a director of the Science Media Centre, therefore she is experienced in this area.

The article begins with impressive quote of John Beddington, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government and Professor of Applied Population Biology at Imperial College London. “We are not - and I genuinely think we should think about how we do this - grossly intolerant of pseudo-science, the building up of what purports to be science by the cherry-picking of the facts and the failure to use scientific evidence and the failure to use scientific method.” Fox admits that scientists praised Beddington for stating this, but she suggests different attitude. She thinks that encouraging people to embrace the scientific method is more desirable than persuading them to condemn “anti-scientific” approach. She mentions the Science Media Centre and its mission “to help to renew public trust in science”, which she believes can be accomplished this way.

Overall, the article is not only interesting, but also constructive. The author emphasizes that scientists should be more active in trying to communicate science to wide audience and praises Beddington quote “We must make evidence, and associated uncertainties, accessible and explicable. In a world of global communication, we cannot afford to only speak to ourselves.”