SCIENCE AND JOURNALISM, HOW A CHANGING INDUSTRY IS AFFECTING WHAT THE PUBLIC READS, SEES AND HEARS ABOUT SCIENCE

In an era when the supply of scientific information is unprecedented, the quality of the information reaching the public has never been more endangered. Journalists always have been pressured by deadlines. Now those pressures are intensifying as a result of ever-increasing demands for instantly available online stories and ever-decreasing staffs, as media companies try to increase their profit margins. The true victims might well be the audience that depends on journalists to gather, interpret and distill the information needed for informed judgments. Among U.S. newspapers, the “science section” is an endangered species, if not the science journalist, and so is the story that unfolds rather than erupts. The public may not learn about “slow-motion disasters” – for example, the over-development of fragile barrier islands -- until the consequences are irreversible. The demands for instant news will only increase the odds that articles will be less thoughtful and less thoroughly reported and encourage uncritical rewrites of journal articles. Scientists have a responsibility to be vigilant and to point out inaccuracies, inconsistencies and inadequate reporting in what is presented to the general public.