Is Good Scientific Journalism Possible?

scida sends in a link to his blog post exploring the question of whether, roughly speaking, science journalism is an impossible task. From the post: "I have spent the better half of the past six months trying to understand one thing: how can you effectively present primary scientific literature to the general public? Is this even possible? ... During the past few months, I have spent entire days locked up in my office, writing my first manuscript to be submitted to a peer reviewed scientific journal. While doing so, I have come to realize the following: details can change everything. There are a number of assumptions I have been forced to make while analyzing my data, many of which are critical for both my methodology and the development of few of my arguments. Why? Often, the information I require simply isn't available (the studies haven't been done, or the studies that exist are based on assumptions of their own). Now, can someone unfamiliar with a particular field, nay, a sub-discipline of that field, recognize these assumptions for what they are?"

Comments

smacks of elitism and insularity

[circletimessquare]

dear elitist:

within the mind of your average joe blow, you will find two shocking things:

1. amazing depths of stupidity
2. amazing heights of intellect

therefore, you sell sophisticated information to joe blow in the only way possible: straightforward. no watering down, no soft pedaling. then watch as what you deem ungraspable (that's the elitism in you) getting grasped notheless

dear insular academic:

not everything has to be explained. communication is not about impressing upon someone else's mind every little delicate detail. nor is it necessary to do that for joe blow to grasp important pieces of information

in fact, there is no value in science that cannot be communicated and explained. in the mind of the most advanced intellect can be the understanding and insight of the most amazing things. but if said great intellect can't open his or her mouth and explain it to someone else, in his head this great insight stays, and it dies with him, and becomes dust. in other words, dear insulated academic, i am saying your ability to communicate your research is actually more important than your ability to grasp every nuance of your own research

Re:smacks of elitism and insularity

[kebes]

(Disclosure: I'm a scientist.)

I mostly agree with what you've said.

you sell sophisticated information to joe blow in the only way possible: straightforward. no watering down, no soft pedaling. then watch as what you deem ungraspable (that's the elitism in you) getting grasped notheless

Agreed. I think science journalism often overly simplifies things in the name of some ethereal "joe average" when in reality people can get quite a bit out of technical descriptions, even if they don't understand every detail. It's more important, in my opinion, for the presented information to be correct, so that the interested reader can really think about it (and maybe read it multiple times, and go check other sources)... rather than sacrificing correctness in the name of "making it easier to understand."

not everything has to be explained. communication is not about impressing upon someone else's mind every little delicate detail. nor is it necessary to do that for joe blow to grasp important pieces of information

There is no doubt that scientists need to spend more time crafting their delivery before speaking with journalists. A well-respected scientist that I've collaborated with had a rule: "If you can't explain what you did in three sentences, then you have not thought about it enough."

I think that good science journalism is possible, but it requires some extra effort from both the journalist and the scientist. Ideally, the journalist should be checking with the scientists that his simplified explanations are correct, and changing them if they are not (rather than printing something that the scientist will read and then shake his head). The scientist, meanwhile, should think long and hard about what the essence of their work is.