The following links to a couple other items worth reading: badscience.net/2014/12/my-bmj-editorial-on-academic-press-releases-routinely-misleading-the-public/ and bmj/content/349/bmj.g7465. They all touch on how press releases from academic institutions can exaggerate or misrepresent science. Oh, dont I know it, as I have literally caught errors in releases when Ive been able to read the papers the releases were about when writing something about them. Its almost a case of that game telephone: At each step of information being passed along, the information gets distorted. A researcher explains/summarizes/translates his or her work to communications/PR staff, who may or may not be scientifically literate. Comm/PR staffer writes up a release, taking the translation and spinning it in a way thatll attract journalists attention to get them to write about it (the good ones will give you a link to the research or give you a full-text version if you ask for it). Journalist, who may or may not be scientifically literate (and there are fewer dedicated science writers at a lot of news outlets these days, so odds are the journo is NOT scientifically literate and doesnt know how to look up research papers), picks up the release and develops a story from it, which may be no more than writing something based on the press release. If the journos good, he or she will look at the actual paper/research (or at least the abstract; just from that very often you can catch a lot of spin) and not just write off the release. He or she also will interview the researcher and others not involved in the research (for an independent-expert opinion). If he or she cant do all that, the journo, if he or shes good, will give you some hint a story or briefs based just on a release (a big hint: researcher is quoted, and a phrase like said in a press release/statement is used) and link to at least the abstract. And then no matter how good a communicator anyone is, from researcher to comm/PR staffer to journo, even the best can have off days or run into constraints that keep them from being as thorough as theyd like. #science #sciencewriting
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 10:29:27 +0000
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