Introduction
It is not unheard of that scientific research and discoveries are sensationalized, skewed, or even outright misportrayed by the news media. Intentional or not, this does a disservice to both the scientific communities (by misrepresenting their findings) and to the general public that, more often than not, acquire their knowledge of scientific results from newspapers, websites, and magazines, rather than scientific journals. The intent of this paper is to have the student review both sources of information (journal articles and mass media sources) and describe whether or not the results published by the scientists are accurately described to the general public.
Directions
Find an article that is published by a media outlet that pertains to a subject we have, or will, discuss in this class. I find this website to a good resource, as it usually contains links to both the news source and references for the scholarly article from which the article was derived. If you are unsure whether the topic is germane to this course please feel free to forward the article to me and I will let you know if it is acceptable or not. Read through both the scholarly and media article, compare and contrast both sources and make note of any inconsistencies between the two.
In a 3-5-page paper highlight these inconsistencies. Tell me what the scientific articles is trying to convey and how this is presented to the general public. Please note, I am not looking for just a review of the articles, but rather I want your personal input. Tell me why you think inconsistencies crop up between the scientific research and how it is presented to the public in the media. Are there ways to fix this divide? Do the scientific articles need to be presented in a manner (i.e., writing) that is accessible by the general public? Do the media writers need to be more tedious in their research for an article?
Formatting
- 3-5 pages. This means at a minimum three FULL pages, not 2 ¾.
- Double spaced
- 1" margins
- Size 12 Times New Roman font