{"id":323,"date":"2009-02-17T16:35:49","date_gmt":"2009-02-17T20:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=323"},"modified":"2009-02-17T16:35:49","modified_gmt":"2009-02-17T20:35:49","slug":"as-science-reporting-falls-scientists-must-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2009\/02\/17\/as-science-reporting-falls-scientists-must-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"As science reporting falls, scientists must rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"press_room_milwaukee\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I attended a panel last week, titled \u201cThe Future of Science and Environmental Journalism,\u201d that included Peter Dykstra, former executive producer for CNN\u2019s Science, Technology and Weather unit. Peter and his entire science team were cut from CNN<\/a> in December, marking one of the largest blows for science reporting in the mainstream media. The panel discussed the abysmal state of affairs for science journalism, especially when menacing global issues like climate change and invasive species pose such a threat to society at large.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the New York Times\u2019 Andrew Revkin pointed out<\/a> in his blog, it\u2019s easy to blame waist-tightening business managers for the lack of competent news coverage of science. But in fact, it may have to do with the way we teach science and engineering, both in and out of the classroom.<\/span><\/p>\n

At a session at the annual meeting<\/a> of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) this weekend, the perilous state of science news coverage was debated in the session \u201cHot and Hotter: Media Coverage of Climate-Change Impacts, Policies, and Politics.\u201d Stephen Schneider, a climatologist and contributing author to the 2007 IPCC report, gave an outspoken rebuke to both business managers and his scientific colleagues.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBusiness managers of media organizations, you are screwing up your responsibility by firing science and environment reporters who are frankly the only ones competent to do this,\u201d he said in a news release<\/a> from Stanford\u2019s news office. And he didn\u2019t stop there. <\/span><\/p>\n

Schneider pointed out that many scientists find it irresponsible to spend a lot of time talking with the media when they only get \u201c5 seconds on the evening news, a couple of quotes in the New York Times, or five minutes in front of Congress.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you know what guys [sic], that\u2019s just how it is,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if you think that you have a higher calling and you\u2019re not going to play the game because they don\u2019t give you the time to tell the whole story, then all it means is that you\u2019ve passed the buck to others who know the topic less well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In a time when educated, knowledgeable science reporters are being let go left and right, the duty of communication falls ever more strongly to scientists.\u00a0 Otherwise, we risk misinformed science news coverage \u2013 like this infamous FOX News story about using water as fuel<\/a> \u2013 with no background check for credibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more about Stephen Schneider\u2019s excellent advice for scientists communicating with the media on his \u201cMediarology<\/a>\u201d web page.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reporter Elie Dolgin interviews ecologist Edward Levri of Penn State Altoona during the 2008 ESA annual meeting
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I attended a panel last week, titled \u201cThe Future of Science and Environmental Journalism,\u201d that included Peter Dykstra, former executive producer for CNN\u2019s Science, Technology and Weather unit. Peter and his entire science team were cut from CNN in December, marking one of the largest blows for science reporting in the mainstream media. The panel discussed the abysmal state of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-journalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}