Tag Archives: journalism
Scicommers as knowledge producers
Reading the latest edition of Raghavendra Gadagkar’s column in The Wire Science, ‘More Fun Than Fun’, about how scientists should become communicators and communicators should be treated as knowledge-producers, I began wondering if the knowledge produced by the latter is … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged journalism, knowledge production, Raghavendra Gadagkar, science communication, science journalism
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On the lab-leak hypothesis
One problem with the debate over the novel coronavirus’s “lab leak” origin hypothesis is a problem I’m starting to see in quite a few other areas of pandemic-related analysis and discussion. It’s that no one will say why others are … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Scicomm, Science
Tagged absence of evidence, COVID-19 pandemic, DRASTIC, journalism, Katherine Eban, lab-leak hypothesis, Newsweek, Nicholas Wade, novel coronavirus, science communication, scientific illiberalism, The Seeker, Wuhan Institute of Virology, zoonotic-spillover hypothesis
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The climate change of bad news
This post flows a bit like the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket. As one friend put it, “It starts somewhere and then goes in a different direction.” This year hasn’t been beset by the same old steady drizzle of bad news … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Op-eds
Tagged bad news, Ben Smith, caste, cognitive dissonance, fact-checking, Jacob Silverman, Jonah Lehrer, journalism, Miami Herald, parachute journalism, privileges, Rafia Zakaria, Rukmini Callimachi, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The New Yorker
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Good journalism is still around
This morning, a trusted scientist called my attention to a tweet thread by Jordan Fischer listing the many good stories journalists in the US had done that had improved the lives of people. The scientist then tagged me, presumably to … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds
Tagged COVID-19, false balance, fourth estate, freedom of the press, Jordan Fischer, journalism
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Nitin Gadkari, tomato chutney and blood
There is a famous comedy scene in Tamil cinema, starring the actors Vadivelu and ‘Bonda’ Mani. Those who understand Tamil should skip this awkward retelling – intended for non-Tamil speakers, to the video below and the post after. Vadivelu has … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged Bertrand Russell, Bonda Mani, coronavirus pandemic, false balance, journalism, nationalism, NDTV, Nitin Gadkari, novel coronavirus, Prakash Javadekar, press freedom, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pseudoscience, scientism, tomato chutney, Vadivelu, Western science
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Poor journalism is making it harder for preprints
There have been quite a few statements by various scientists on Twitter who, in pointing to some preprint paper’s untenable claims, point to the manuscript’s identity as a preprint paper as well. This is not fair, as I’ve argued many times before. … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged Ars Technica, COVID-19, journalism, misinformation, peer review, preprint papers, preprint repositories, preprints, press release, science journalism, scientific literature, scientific publishing, The Lancet
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The journalist as expert
I recently turned down some requests for interviews because the topics of discussion in each case indicated that I would be treated as a scientist, not a science journalist (something that happened shortly after the Balakot airstrikes and the ASAT … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Scicomm, Science
Tagged COVID-19, expertise, experts, fourth estate, holism, journalism, science journalism, specialization, synthesis, temporary experts, virology
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The gaudy-hued beast
When you wake up in the morning to news of four people who allegedly raped a woman having been shot to death by the police, it’s hard not to ask yourself what kind of country this is. It’s even harder … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged cynicism, extra-judicial killing, failure, journalism, mental health, misanthropy, relevance, reward mechanism, The Wire
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The technically correct strapline
(Re)Stumbled upon this article, by Ed Yong in The Atlantic, July 2016, this morning. As usual, it is rivetingly packaged. The strapline in particular caught my eye: Biology textbooks tell us that lichens are alliances between two organisms—a fungus and … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged curiosity gap, Facebook, headline, inverted pyramid, journalism, lichen, social media, The Atlantic, Twitter
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On that Poynter debate about stock images and ethical visual journalism
Response to Mark Johnson, Article about free images ‘contradicts everything I hold true about journalism’, Poynter, February 9, 2018. ∞ Let’s get the caveats out of the way: The article to which Johnson is responding did get some of its messaging wrong. … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes, Op-eds, Tech
Tagged CC-BY license, copyright, Creative Commons, digital commons, journalism, Mark Johnson, multimedia, Open Access, podcast, Poynter, Public domain, royalty, video journalism, visual journalism
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