Between Scientists and Journalists
A large gap divides the scientific and journalist communities when it comes to deciding what is newsworthy. The ongoing nature of peer review in the scientific community makes it difficult to report interesting advances in scientific discovery. Consequently, this can create a focus on the negative aspects of medicine and science; causing journalists to report on the mistakes of doctors or misconstruing the results of research. However, journalists are not the only ones to fault as scientists have also broadcast their promising initial research to the media in attempts to secure future funding. For example, research done by George Washington University in 1993 on in-vitro fertilization was warped by the media into a horrific foray into human cloning.
Read more about this topic: Medical Journalism, Conflict of Interest
Famous quotes containing the words scientists and/or journalists:
“Y’know scientists are funny. We probe and measure and dissect. Invent lights without heat, weigh a caterpillar’s eyebrow. But when it comes to really important things we’re as stupid as the caveman.... Like love. Makes the world go ‘round, but what do we know about it? Is it a fact? Is it chemistry? Electricity?”
—Martin Berkeley, and Jack Arnold. Helen Dobson (Lori Nelson)
“I think there ought to be a club in which preachers and journalists could come together and have the sentimentalism of the one matched with the cynicism of the other. That ought to bring them pretty close to the truth.”
—Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971)