Science Journalism Faces Important Challenges

by Andrew McGregor

In the film “Goodbye Lenin” the protagonist’s mother suffers a stroke just before communism falls in East Germany and he tries to maintain her perception that communism has not ended.  One of the ways he does this is by playing old news broadcasts because in communist East Germany the news never changes.

That moment was funny and interesting but it also sheds light on journalism everywhere.  If someone were to randomly be given a newspaper with the headline “SEX SCANDAL ROCKS CAPITOL HILL” they would be hard pressed to determine exactly when that headline was written.  Mark Foley, Bill Clinton? Who? When?

Science journalism is different because when a story is reported the category of science gives the article validity not possessed by other kinds of journalism.  For example, the headline “FIRST TEST TUBE BABY BORN” is an important moment of scientific progress: a headline that stands alone in history.

The session this morning very much dealt with such issues as luminaries from around the nation debated the nature of science writing, starting with such fundamental considerations as asking, “What is science?”

Dialectical opinions about what to do with science journalism were expressed, but the salient issue became the problem of science and belief.  Donald Kennedy, the editor-in-chief of Science Magazine gave an example by dropping a pencil on the floor as an example of people believing in gravity.  He contrasted this with a belief in evolution, stating that only about half of the American population believes in evolution.

This statistic belies the seminal role of science in terms of cultural and journalistic importance.  While journalism in its idealized manifestations is supposed to be fair, objective, and balanced.  What science journalism states is perceived as being true by the public.  This is part of the uneasiness faced by science writers as they must be both educators and reporters; forcing science writing outside of the traditional tropes of journalism.

In terms of journalism it is interesting to contrast science reporting with political reporting.  People expect politicians to lie on some level.  This cynicism gives itself to different styles of reporting where George Bush says A and Nancy Pelosi retorts with B and that can be a complete story.

Science journalism is held to a different standard commensurate with the way science is perceived not as another story, but as something true.

Science writers and scientists themselves will not tend to argue that their research is a unifying and complete theory of life.  However, the perception is there as scientists are expected to provide missile defense shields, cures for AIDS, and a narrative for the creation of existence.

It is this expectation that makes science journalism an intrinsically difficult and important part of contemporary culture.