Comments on: Science Tuesday: Lies on the Motel TV

By: arizaphale

arizaphale — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:37:39 +0000

In response to Boyhowdy ( and I would be interested in CDV’s feedback on this), is the current trend for research students to present ‘posters’ a move towards this need for clear communication of an idea? My friend Ouistiti in France was always attending conferences and presenting posters. Even though this was to an audience of sciencists, perhaps it reflects the need for a different mode of communication of ideas.

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By: Bobbie

Bobbie — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 05:27:53 +0000

There’s another aspect to this issue that also is important. At some point during their education, students (and not just those in science majors) need to be taught how to be good (i.e. skeptical) consumers of science/medical news. By that I mean that they need to understand enough about how research is conducted and how data are analyzed so that they can ask appropriate questions, e.g., who funded the study; how big was the sample; what alternative explanation could there be for a result — basic stuff like that. They need to be taught the difference between the colloquial meaning and the scientific meaning for such terms as random, significant, correlation, sample, population, and so on. Without this basic kind of knowledge, it’s easy for people to be bamboozled.

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By: maggie, dammit

maggie, dammit — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:31:48 +0000

I agree with Courtney. Journalists have to become mini-experts in every topic they write about. People don’t realize how hard it is, writing something interesting, factual, entertaining, informative, digestible, and smooth. It’s hard to do that about welding - science by its very nature makes it next to impossible. If you don’t have a scientific mind, how do you do it?

Add in the pressures of deadlines and editors who are looking for pizazz, and the road becomes very, very tough.

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By: courtney

courtney — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:02:04 +0000

I’ve participted in many a discussion on this very topic in my journalism classes, and you’re absolutely right — medicine and other sciences are grossly oversimplified. But here’s the hard part about being a journalist: You have to be an expert in two fields. You have to be a good writer and newsgatherer, but you also have to become somewhat of an expert in your beat. Remember that the media’s job is to condense stories, which means some details are going to be left out. I understand how scientists can get frustrated with that, but they also have to remember that they’re talking to laypeople.

That said, science can and should be covered better and more thoroughly.

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By: boyhowdy

boyhowdy — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:06:25 +0000

I’m actually surprised not to see museums mentioned here as an important medium for info-flow between research and the public.

Back before I became a classroom teacher, I did a few years of a fellowship at the Museum of Science in Boston. I was the thirteenth “man” in a twelve-person education department, hired for my background in public performance; while all others around me — primarily PhDs in various branches of the sciences — spent their time trying to make new and older science research in their respective fields clear and engaging in a variety of media and settings, my job included taking my fair share of the public demonstrations — we all did them, on each subject — and consider the structure and clarity of those demonstrations as we planned and revised them. It was great to be the “communications/media” specialist on the team; I learned some amazing science every day, and hopefully, taught my peers and the public something useful.

These days, that same museum has a blog, participates in active weather research, and — more importantly — still continues it its core mission to help ALL the public learn what to expect from “good science”, so they will be least likely to accept media bias without critical responses.

Would the museum model work for the research world, too? Should schools of performance, education, and media be more closely tied to schools of science? Should students be encouraged to not only write, but speak, diagram, and build exhibits about their work? Certainly, the last time most people I know had to tell the public about science, they did so as part of a multimedia science fair experiment and presentation in school, not as part of an essay. And when you ask non-scientists what they remember about science class, I daresay it’s going to be that experiment or demonstration, not the explanation.

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By: Angel

Angel — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:38:43 +0000

Oh absolutely, Not Afraid…, I know a couple of personal blogs written by scientists that I know I’d find extremely interesting. That is, if I could ever read a post without needing a scientific dictionary of some sort!
Maybe I should just try harder.

By: Not Afraid To Use It

Not Afraid To Use It — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:20:17 +0000

Your post reminds me of the lecture I had to give my Swedish students every year. My “science line” students used to piss and moan over the fact that they had to write essays and learn grammar because they were science majors, dammit, not humanities majors. I told them if they did all the work, designed some fabulous new scientific design, but then could not EXPLAIN it to anyone what the hell good would that do? They agreed with me. Or at least they kept their grumbling to themselves.

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By: Angel

Angel — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:46:04 +0000

My husband isn’t a Scientist. He’s a Pharmacist, and even he can’t watch a news segment without becoming livid about what’s being left out or embelished especially by health care admins. and Pharmacutical companies. He can’t vent at work so I get to hear it.

What makes him even more angry is when he does take the time to explain the truth to someone, they usually dismiss him because they have already been brainwashed by whatever they’ve heard on tv or read in the paper.

I now know more about drug patents and political agendas and generics, etc. than I ever imagined I’d know.

We really should pay more attention to it all. Unfortunately when things sound too complicated we’ve trained ourselves to overlook it and find the easy way out. It’s why we’re so screwed up right now.

I’m definitely going to check out those sites. Thanks!