You Say You Want a Revolution?

Science journalists gathered at USC Annenberg on Monday to address the question, “Does Science Get a Fair Shake in the Media?” Their answer, unsurprisingly, was no.

Public interest in science reporting is low: 16 percent of the U.S. public follows science stories closely, according to Pew polling data. And many science reporters lack training in scientific disciplines and get assigned beats across an unmanageably large spectrum of scientific fields. So it’s no surprise that what gets covered in the news often misses the mark.

But what about blogs? Bloggers such as PZ Myers are gaining a reputation online, and also have solid backgrounds in the sciences. And interestingly, some of the devoted followers of this media are science journalists.

As members of the Scientific American-sponsored panel pointed out, science blogs could be just the “revolution” science journalism is looking for. But what if science blogs aren’t just a source, but an authority?

Feedback from journalists could surely improve the quality (and presumably, the reach) of some bloggers, as USC astronomy and physics professor Clifford Johnson pointed out. But journalists could learn some tricks from bloggers, too.

Because most scientists aren’t trained at communicating the details or significance of their work, and most journalists don’t have a science background, the details are lost in the reporting.

Traditional science journalism is also frequently trapped in the counterproductive the conflict-and-drama-driven model. Much science coverage in the mainstream media concerns recently-released studies that claim to reverse current understandings:

At the point of publication, most individual papers have “had almost no impact on thinking,” said Scientific American Editor in Chief and discussion moderator John Rennie. Many papers are later proven wrong.

As Matt Nisbet pointed out in response to a recent New York Times Magazine article on epidemiological studies, the release of a new scientific study is not necessarily newsworthy. But with more and more science journalists trolling the profusion of science blogs for story leads, the focus could be brought back to more significant science.

So can science bloggers establish their own authoritative voice in the media? If 16 percent of the public included trustworthy science bloggers in their media orbit, we might be on the way to revolution.

Tags: blog, Media, scientific literacy

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