Press releases and science in the media
From Tracker, the blog of the MIT journalism school, in a long post on the habit of reprinting lightly-edited press releases and calling it science journalism
Let’s be clear: The aim of Stanford press releases is to promote Stanford; not to enrich the readers of The Washington Post. The same is true of the University of Zurich’s releases. And of all the other releases that have been reprinted in the Post.
And the aim of the Post is–or should be–something quite different. And the paper says so in a lengthy credo on its website. “Through lively, sometimes humorous, but always rigorously researched stories, we try to separate the truths from the half-truths to help people make smarter HEALTH & SCIENCE care choices for themselves and their families.” It goes on: “We insist on getting information from the most reliable sources—the respected authorities in a particular field and the most solid studies in peer-reviewed medical journals. We’re fiercely independent of any commercial interest or advocacy group.” And that would include doctors and universities?
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »