Hi Stephan (and other psci-commers)
Stephan Matthiesen wrote:
>
> So, do you mean to imply that there are no quality differences between
> individual pieces?
No, of course there are. Sorry if anything I wrote gave the impression I
thought that.
> That it is just a matter that scientists are over-critical an we just
> have to live with it? But the strange thing is that teachers and
> university lecturers have to judge the quality of student essays
> regularly, and they do get the impression that some are better than
> others, otherwise grading wouldn't really make sense. Why doesn't this
> apply to journalistic pieces?
I think it is true that the quality is variable. I just question who
should do that grading (or indeed whether organised grading of that sort
is a good idea).
>
> Why is there so much resistance to look at the quality of journalism?
> Wouldn't it be time to acknowledge that there is a problem and that
> journalism in this country needs significant reforms?
There are numerous problems with journalism today (most of which aren't
within the scope of psci-com, and some of which are why I don't work as
a journalist any more). I don't think that there is that much resistance
to criticism of these issues, though. If you read Flat Earth News, the
MediaGuardian or The Journalist (the house magazine of the NUJ) you'll
see that hacks are quite aware of the media's shortcomings, and want
reform of the industry.
Cheers
Oli
PS - thanks to everyone for a really thought-provoking discussion on this.
--
Oli Usher
Junior ESA/Hubble Public Information Officer
Education and Public Outreach Department
European Southern Observatory
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany
Telephone: +49 89 3200 6855
Mobile (Germany): +49 176 7648 2193
Mobile (UK): +44 7754 130 109
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: www.spacetelescope.org, www.eso.org
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