Why science journalism is often so crappy

May 31, 2012 by retrieverman

on June 1, 2012 at 8:53 am Peggy Richter

unfortunately it’s also the case that even good science is “dumbed down” or made erroniously simplistic because the writers (or the news editor) thinks people are too dumb or uneducated to follow the actual information. One sees this a lot on “hot” subjects like obesity, disaster predictions and most “health” subjects. While it’s probably true that many people could not follow a scientific paper in it’s entirety, the “make it interesting” and “simplify” editing often result in conclusions and statements that are not only not justified, but clearly false. Sadly, the result often isn’t just misinformation but mistrust of any real science.
on June 1, 2012 at 5:50 pm Peter Dawson

“dumbing down” can get people started being interested in a subject, don’t risk becoming an intellectual snob.

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