Similarly, in a pre-emptive line to ward off sensationalism
A journalist doesn’t have any interest not to engage in sensationalism.
Things that are v reasonable with qualifies can become v unreasonable if you remove the qualifiers—and editors often just see the qualifiers as unnecessary verbosity (or want the piece to have stronger, more senational claims)
Editors want to write articles that the average person understands. It’s their job to simplify. That still has a good chance of leaving the readers more informed than they were before reading the article.
Explaining things to the average person is hard.
It’s not the kind of article that I would sent people who have an background and who approach you. On the other hand it’s quite fine for the average person.
“A journalist doesn’t have any interest not to engage in sensationalism.”
Yes. Lazy shorthand in my last lw post, apologies. I should have said something along the lines of “in order to clarify our concerns , and not give the journalist the honest impression we though these things all represented imminent doom, which might result in sensationalist coverage”—as in, sensationalism resulting from misunderstanding. If the journalist chooses deliberately to engage in sensationalism, that’s a slightly different thing—and yes, it sells newspapers.
“Editors want to write articles that the average person understands. It’s their job to simplify. That still has a good chance of leaving the readers more informed than they were before reading the article.”
Yes. I merely get concerned when “scientists think we need to learn more about this, and recommend use of the precautionary principle before engaging” gets simplified to “scientists say ’don’t do this”, as in that case it’s not clear to me that readers come away with a better understanding of the issue. There’s a lot of misunderstanding of science due to simplified reporting. Anders Sandberg and Avi Roy have a good article on this in health (as do others):
http://theconversation.com/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-health-and-science-reporting-21130
“It’s not the kind of article that I would sent people who have an background and who approach you. On the other hand it’s quite fine for the average person.”
There’s a lot of misunderstanding of science due to simplified reporting. Anders Sandberg and Avi Roy have a good article on this in health
I don’t think the article you linked does demonstrate that reporting produces misunderstanding. You have to think about the alternative. How does the average person form their beliefs? They might hear something from a friend. They might read the horoscope.
Even when the journalist actually writes “scientists think we need to learn more about this, and recommend use of the precautionary principle before engaging” many readers will simply read “scientists say ’don’t do this” or they simply ignore it. Especially when you focus on what they actually remember from reading the article.
A journalist doesn’t have any interest not to engage in sensationalism.
Editors want to write articles that the average person understands. It’s their job to simplify. That still has a good chance of leaving the readers more informed than they were before reading the article.
Explaining things to the average person is hard.
It’s not the kind of article that I would sent people who have an background and who approach you. On the other hand it’s quite fine for the average person.
“A journalist doesn’t have any interest not to engage in sensationalism.”
Yes. Lazy shorthand in my last lw post, apologies. I should have said something along the lines of “in order to clarify our concerns , and not give the journalist the honest impression we though these things all represented imminent doom, which might result in sensationalist coverage”—as in, sensationalism resulting from misunderstanding. If the journalist chooses deliberately to engage in sensationalism, that’s a slightly different thing—and yes, it sells newspapers.
“Editors want to write articles that the average person understands. It’s their job to simplify. That still has a good chance of leaving the readers more informed than they were before reading the article.”
Yes. I merely get concerned when “scientists think we need to learn more about this, and recommend use of the precautionary principle before engaging” gets simplified to “scientists say ’don’t do this”, as in that case it’s not clear to me that readers come away with a better understanding of the issue. There’s a lot of misunderstanding of science due to simplified reporting. Anders Sandberg and Avi Roy have a good article on this in health (as do others): http://theconversation.com/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-health-and-science-reporting-21130
“It’s not the kind of article that I would sent people who have an background and who approach you. On the other hand it’s quite fine for the average person.”
Thanks, helpful.
I don’t think the article you linked does demonstrate that reporting produces misunderstanding. You have to think about the alternative. How does the average person form their beliefs? They might hear something from a friend. They might read the horoscope.
Even when the journalist actually writes “scientists think we need to learn more about this, and recommend use of the precautionary principle before engaging” many readers will simply read “scientists say ’don’t do this” or they simply ignore it. Especially when you focus on what they actually remember from reading the article.