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HPSC2002: Science in the Mass Media

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Title: HPSC2002: Science in the Mass Media


1
HPSC2002 Science in the Mass Media
  • Lecture 3
  • Processes of news production
  • Thursday 29th January

2
Media processes
  • Key things to think about are
  • Institutions
  • Interests
  • Values
  • Think about these in relation to both science and
    the media
  • Two types of journalists who cover science news
  • Journalists and science journalists
  • Regardless of specialism the same journalistic
    rules apply

3
The role of the journalist
  • What do journalists do?
  • Inform, raise attention, sell advertising,
    entertain, sell newspapers
  • What should journalists do?
  • Be socially responsible? Normative ideas
    here.idealised view?
  • Should act as trustees of the public
  • But what about responsibility to newspaper as a
    business?

4
Journalism
  • Ethos
  • public interest
  • critical spirit
  • Profession
  • established
  • competitive
  • unstable
  • Constraints
  • subject to deadlines
  • News selection
  • Image
  • independent
  • credible
  • Publics
  • readers
  • advertisers
  • civil society

5
Public interest news
  • Think about main sections of the paper
  • Most relate to some kind of public event or
    entity
  • e.g. politics, crime, sport, arts, business
  • Reporters have access to all of these events,or
    institutions
  • What about science?
  • Not so public, despite many being public servants
  • Cant just walk into a lab to report on it
  • So how do journalists get access to science for
    reporting purposes?

6
Sources for science news
  • Journals (Nature, Science, Lancet, NEJoM)
  • Meetings
  • Breaking News (earthquakes floods etc)
  • Press conferences and press releases
  • Unsolicited calls
  • Own sources
  • (taken from Allan 2002)

7
Public Relations
  • Ethos
  • Corporate interest
  • Managerial spirit
  • Profession
  • Growing
  • Self-sustaining
  • Steady
  • Constraints
  • Manage news timetables
  • News management
  • Image
  • corporate scapegoat
  • Suspect
  • Publics
  • Shareholders
  • Corporation
  • Stakeholders

8
The rise of Public Relations in science
  • Big growth area
  • Allow scientists and institutions some control in
    the news process
  • Are journalists susceptible to press releases?
  • Whose agenda is being served?
  • PR makes job of a journalist very easy
  • All the facts and sources provided, but will be
    partisan
  • Do press releases compromise the professional
    role/values of the journalist?

9
Sources for science news
  • Journals (Nature, Science, Lancet, NEJoM)
  • Meetings
  • Breaking News (earthquakes floods etc)
  • Press conferences and press releases
  • Unsolicited calls
  • Own sources
  • (taken from Allan 2002)

10
  • Journalism
  • Ethos
  • public interest
  • critical spirit
  • Profession
  • established
  • competitive
  • unstable
  • Constraints
  • subject to deadlines
  • News selection
  • Image
  • independent
  • credible
  • Publics
  • readers
  • advertisers
  • civil society
  • Public Relations
  • Corporate interest
  • Managerial spirit
  • Growing
  • Self-sustaining
  • Steady
  • Manage news timetables
  • News management
  • corporate scapegoat
  • Suspect
  • Shareholders
  • Corporation
  • stakeholders

11
Framing the news
  • There are factors that affect which stories get
    covered, irrespective of whether it is science or
    not.
  • News editors have no loyalties to science
  • Very difficult to predict who is going to read
    the paper
  • Relies on stereotypes and demographic data
  • News gets fitted into the paper through process
    of framing
  • Physical structure of the paper allows some
    framing
  • Finite space
  • Regular sections for different topics
  • But competing interests at work for rest of
    space

12
How does science make it into the news?
  • So how to account for which stories win and lose
    the battle for news space?
  • Journalists will claim they can sniff out a
    good story
  • Sociologists explain it using the concept of
    newsvalues
  • Newsvalues are
  • Characteristics of a story that make it news
  • Psychological something to do with what is going
    on in the readers minds
  • Practical also determined by the practicalities
    of news gathering and news production
  • Question Does science have news value?

13
News value - Frequency
  • How often or regularly does it happen?
  • Stories journalists can anticipate in advance
  • Line up interviews and reserve space in paper
  • Readers anticipate, it feels familiar
  • E.g. football results every Monday
  • Science does not have frequencyit has its own
    timetable

14
News value - Continuity
  • Will the story have legs?
  • E.g. US election has been in press for months
    before the actual event.
  • Journalists can be well versed in issues
  • Science doesnt have much in the way of
    continuity.
  • Some long running political issues with a science
    basis
  • E.g. BSE, GM crops, Climate change
  • Generally science happens slowly and on no
    particular timetable though

15
News value - Composition
  • What sections are there in the newspaper?
  • Readers expect certain things to be in certain
    places
  • Politics up front, sport at the back etc
  • Room for science?
  • Some have a science section

16
News value - Threshold
  • How big is it?
  • Small earthquake in Chile, no one harmed
  • Vs.
  • Thousands escape injury in American earthquake.
  • Science tends to be moderated and qualified, no
    claim is too small.

17
News value - Unambiguity
  • News tends to have a clear good or bad message.
  • Science tends not to be ambiguous, at least not
    once its in the public domain.
  • Scientists possibly have a cure for cancer
  • Not a good headline!

18
News values - Meaningfulness Consonance
  • Will the news mean something to the readers?
  • Does it confirm or reinforce something that we
    already believe?
  • Some science often not meaningful to people
  • E.g. why should anyone care about the Higgs
    boson?
  • Not meaningful nor have any relation to peoples
    beliefs
  • Some areas that do
  • Food
  • Psychology
  • Health

19
News value - Unexpectedness
  • Is it a rare or unexpected event?
  • Quite a lot of science is unexpected
  • E.g. water on Mars
  • But rare events are not necessarily familiar to
    people, so doesnt always have meaningfulness or
    consonance.

20
News value - Reliable Sources
  • Can we trust this information?
  • Science scores very highly on this
  • Scientists say
  • According to Nature
  • Science provides us with peer reviewed knowledge,
    so perceived as trustworthy and pre-vetted

21
News value - Competition
  • Is it a scoop, or exclusive story?
  • Journalists like to publish stories that others
    dont get.
  • Exclusives very rare in science
  • Idea of science being universal knowledge
  • Science press agents will rarely privilege one
    newspaper

22
News value - Co-option
  • How can we relate this to science?
  • Science often is co-opted into other stories,
    where it wouldnt be newsworthy on its own
  • E.g. celebrity illnesses
  • The fact box

23
News value - Relevance
  • Is the story in or about the readers world?
  • This explains why there is more news about health
    than particle physics
  • Something can be relevant but not meaningful
  • E.g. important enzyme discovered
  • Relevant to all, but means nothing

24
News value - Facts
  • News style - The 5 Ws
  • Who?
  • What?
  • Where?
  • When?
  • Why?
  • (and How?)
  • Science usually provides answers to all of these.
  • Have to be meaningful and relevant though.

25
News values - Elite nations or people
  • Certain people and countries are deemed more
    newsworthy than others
  • So we follow US election, but not the Swiss one.
  • Former colonies, allies, holiday destinations
  • Likewise some people are more interesting than
    others
  • Celebrity culture of mass media
  • Science not about particular people or places. No
    such thing as an elite scientist
  • Science is supposed to be collaborative and
    international
  • Nobel Prizes as close to this as we get

26
News value - Personalisation
  • Does the story have the human element?
  • E.g. my ill child, Im a cancer survivor, I
    have a mobile phone mast in my garden.
  • Science tends not to be personal, not just one
    scientist, a team
  • The personal isnt supposed to feature
  • E.g. writing up an experiment
  • Lots of science (esp. medicine) gets personalised
    in the media

27
News value - Negativity
  • Bad news tends to get published more than good
    news - has more newsvalue.
  • Because scientists have some control over what
    science goes out into public sphere, tend to only
    hear about good science.

28
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29
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30
Science in the News
  • Lots of reasons why and how science makes it into
    the news
  • Highlights the different communication agenda of
    the mass media
  • Science has to fit with media framings to be
    newsworthy
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