I didn't accuse Alleyne of laziness. What I did was outline a few
things that contribute to churnalism.
Alleyne's article is such a "faithful reproduction" of the Birmingham
press release that churnalism is the only way I can describe it. It
certainly isn't proper journalism, and it's no wonder that Ben
Goldacre has given the piece such a sneery-toned fisking.
You've decided to bash the PRs, which I admit is often good sport.
However, with Alleyne's DT piece I detect a number of possible
contributory factors to this latest embarrassment for science
journalism.
Francis
On 8 Jan 09, at 10:58, Bob Ward wrote:
> I don't agree that this is the result of laziness by the journalist.
> All
> of the science journalists I know, including Richard, are very
> hardworking and conscientious, but have an almost impossible task of
> covering their brief, without the added hazard of having to
> recognising
> when a university press office has issued a release that misrepresents
> the work of its own researchers.
>
> I bet that the real problem here is that the individual(s) who wrote
> the
> press release did not check it with the researchers before issuing it.
> And if they did, then the researchers are equally culpable for the
> mistakes.
>
> Bob Ward
>
> Policy and Communications Director
> Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
> London School of Economics and Political Science
> Houghton Street
> London WC2A 2AE
>
> http://www.lse.ac.uk/grantham
>
> Tel. +44 (0) 20 7106 1236
> Mob. +44 (0) 7811 320346
--
Dr Francis Sedgemore
journalist and science writer
http://sedgemore.com
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