It's been one year since Ryan Gregory stated his blog
Genomicron [
One year of Genomicron. If you don't read his blog regularly, here's a chance to correct that error.
Genomicron is one of the best science blogs and Ryan Gregory is one of the experts you can trust.
It's interesting to read Ryan's description of how his blog evolved from being strictly science" to one where his opinion on other things (e.g. science journalism) became increasingly important. That's a good thing, it's what bloggers bring to the table.
Thanks Larry. Sadly, addressing science reporting became impossible to avoid. Blogs are perhaps our best hope of fixing the damage done by shoddy reports.
ReplyDeleteBlogs are perhaps our best hope of fixing the damage done by shoddy reports.
ReplyDeleteI'd be curious to understand a bit more here.
First of all, there are quite a number of newspapers in North America with daily circulations of a quarter million, a half million, or more. I suspect that very few science blogs have that number of hits (let alone number of different readers as distinct from total hits).
Also, I doubt that science blogs reach more than a small number of those whose views need correcting; by and large, I'd guess that science blogs preach mostly to the choir.
In short, I suspect that your average shoddy wire service science article has many more eyes scanning it than any collection of science blogs writing on the same topic.
(And I haven't touched on shoddy reporting on TV.)
I'm not trying to be sarcastic here ; I just don't understand why you believe that "Blogs are perhaps our best hope of fixing the damage done by shoddy reports."
I was speaking about the future, Scott, because of all the sources you mention, only the blogs are written by researchers.
ReplyDeleteI was speaking about the future,
ReplyDeleteThe distant future, I assume. :-)
I suppose my basic feeling is that the influence of blogs in general and science blogs in particular among the general population is often grossly overestimated. Blogs simply don't have the reach and readership beyond those who are already interested and knowledgeable.
They don't necessarily have to influence the public at large, they only have to influence reporters and keep them on track.
ReplyDeleteAh .... OK, fair enough. However, I'd suggest that the high percentage of snide and snotty comments about reporters on science-oriented blogs doesn't sound to me like many bloggers really take the education and feeding of reporters very seriously. They'd rather just slag them, as far as I can see.
ReplyDeleteThen clearly your blog should try to set a better example!
ReplyDeleteI used to be a regular reader of Genomicron, but there was one time when Dr. Gregory had a string of posts criticizing the inaccurate representation of science in the mainstream media.
ReplyDeleteHis view is valid of course, but the complaints became really nitpicky and moved towards sarcasm. I disagreed with his approach and have not gone back since, but Genomicron is indeed a brilliant science blog.
I don't deny that sarcasm appeared. It's a therapeutic way for me to vent a little frustration now and again, but I don't think it pervades more than a small percentage of the blog. Interestingly, my post on "anatomy of a bad science story", which was 100% sarcastic, is still one of the most widely read posts, so I imagine that others feel the same way to an extent. In fact, this post was nominated by someone and was selected for inclusion in Open Lab, but I asked that it not be included because I did not feel it represented what my blog was all about.
ReplyDelete