HPSC2002: Science in the Mass Media

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HPSC2002 Science in the Mass Media

• Lecture 3
• Processes of news production
• Thursday 29th January

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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

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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?

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Journalism

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

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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?

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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)

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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

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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?

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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)

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• 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

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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

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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?

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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!

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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