Journalism and the scientific method

Journalism and the scientific method

Okay, loyal listeners, it’s imagination time again!

You are sitting at home, eating your breakfast and reading the morning paper. An article catches your eye; it is a report on a study done at a local university. According to the article, the study has fantastic implications for every facet of human life and could change the world as we know it forever.

The question is, do you trust it?

The answer is long and complicated, but the short version is this: Yes, but not really. The article can be considered accurate when it is simply reporting on what the study tested for and what some of its results were. When the article begins to consider future implications and conclusions that were not mentioned in the original study, you should stop reading. Journalists are not superhuman; it is possible for them to make a mistake or misinterpret a finding. If you want scientific accuracy, you should cut out the middle-man and go straight to the science.

The nature of science is that the results of a scientific study are pretty much set in stone; you can’t change the data without potentially permanently ruining your reputation. Where bias can come in is in the interpretation of the results. The interpretation will be found in a section of its own in a study, titled the discussion. This is where the scientists who performed the study are free to offer their opinion on the meaning of their results. However, the scientific method requires that both their method and results be open and replicable. If someone wishes to repeat their experiment and verify their results, it is possible for them to do so, and if someone believes they have a better explanation for the results obtained in the process, they are free to say so.

A side effect of the requirement that science be transparent is that non-scientists can observe the process, too. There are many databases of studies and abstracts available online to anyone who wishes to investigate them. PubMED is a comprehensive database on medical studies, and although many of the papers and articles it contains require a subscription to view the full text, nearly all have summaries of their results available for free. Many times, the scientists who performed the original study will have their results and methods placed online where they can be found with no more than ten seconds of work on a search engine.

Don’t trust the articles in your newspaper for anything more than straight reporting on the existence of a study or experiment. If you want an interpretation of that data, there is more than enough information online for you to read the results yourself and become acquainted with the topic enough that you can form an opinion on the subject. The Internet is chock-full of information; don’t be afraid to use it.