The fact that many scientists are awful communicators who are lousy as telling stories is not a point against them. It means that they were more interested in figuring out the truth than figuring out how to win popularity contests.
This implies to me that there is a market for science communicators who in their careers specialize in winning popularity contests but do so to spread the message of scientific consensus in a way optimized to combat the most dangerous pseudoscience and misinformation/​disinformation. It seemed like the Skeptics movement was trying to do the latter part if not the part about doing so by winning popularity contests at some point over a decade ago but it’s been sidetracked by lots of others things since.
For some science communicators to go about their craft in a way meant to win popularity contests may raise red flags about how it could backfire and those are potential problems worth thinking about. Yet I expect the case for doing so, in terms of cost-benefit analysis, is sufficient to justify considering this option.
This implies to me that there is a market for science communicators who in their careers specialize in winning popularity contests but do so to spread the message of scientific consensus in a way optimized to combat the most dangerous pseudoscience and misinformation/​disinformation. It seemed like the Skeptics movement was trying to do the latter part if not the part about doing so by winning popularity contests at some point over a decade ago but it’s been sidetracked by lots of others things since.
For some science communicators to go about their craft in a way meant to win popularity contests may raise red flags about how it could backfire and those are potential problems worth thinking about. Yet I expect the case for doing so, in terms of cost-benefit analysis, is sufficient to justify considering this option.