The job of a science reporter is severely hampered by the fact that the general audience they are reporting to is so broad and often lacks required knowledge. As an example, most small city newspapers here in Canada are written for someone with a Grade 8 level of education. National newspapers do slightly better - they write for someone with a Grade 12 level of education. This simply doesn't allow a reporter to get at a really interesting aspect of a story since they need to spend so much time informing people about background info. It's also why CNN does its best by boiling down a research article into "THE Liver cancer gene has been found! - and what this means to the war with Iraq!"
Interesting science news will only really be entertaining to those with an adequate background on a subject.
Slashdot Mirror
The job of a science reporter is severely hampered by the fact that the general audience they are reporting to is so broad and often lacks required knowledge. As an example, most small city newspapers here in Canada are written for someone with a Grade 8 level of education. National newspapers do slightly better - they write for someone with a Grade 12 level of education. This simply doesn't allow a reporter to get at a really interesting aspect of a story since they need to spend so much time informing people about background info. It's also why CNN does its best by boiling down a research article into " THE Liver cancer gene has been found! - and what this means to the war with Iraq!" Interesting science news will only really be entertaining to those with an adequate background on a subject.