Meta-textual analysis of mainstream science reporting

Cory Doctorow 10:29 am Mon Sep 27, 2010

The Guardian's Martin Robbins does a spot-on bit of media criticism on the standard template for mainstream science reporting, in a piece fittingly entitled, "This is a news website article about a scientific paper."

In the standfirst I will make a fairly obvious pun about the subject matter before posing an inane question I have no intention of really answering: is this an important scientific finding?

In this paragraph I will state the main claim that the research makes, making appropriate use of "scare quotes" to ensure that it's clear that I have no opinion about this research whatsoever.

In this paragraph I will briefly (because no paragraph should be more than one line) state which existing scientific ideas this new research "challenges".

If the research is about a potential cure, or a solution to a problem, this paragraph will describe how it will raise hopes for a group of sufferers or victims.

This paragraph elaborates on the claim, adding weasel-words like "the scientists say" to shift responsibility for establishing the likely truth or accuracy of the research findings on to absolutely anybody else but me, the journalist.

This is a news website article about a scientific paper

(via MeFi)

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