Source
- URL: https://x.com/skdh/status/1626847652989095937
- Author: Sabine Hossenfelder (@skdh)
- Posted: 2023-02-18 07:34:40
Thread
1/ @skdh
I’ve been doing my weekly Science News for about 4 months now. I have literally read thousands of press releases to that end. The major insight that I have taken away from this is to never, ever, trust a press release.
2/ @skdh
I kind of knew this already in the sense that in cases when I’ve traced down the origin of a bad headline most often it came from a press release. But I usually don’t read press releases right from the bottle, so to speak, I’ve only started doing this last year.
3/ @skdh
It’s actually far worse than I expected. Most press releases are extremely bad examples of science writing. Like, if I had to grade them, most of them would get an E or F. This starts with idiotic headlines that don’t tell you what the research is about.
4/ @skdh
But the biggest problem is that they lack context. For the most part they overstate what’s new and don’t tell you what previous work has been done, they don’t tell you the bigger context. Basically 80% of press releases don’t need to exist.
5/ @skdh
Many of them are so misleadingly written you can’t even blame writers for misunderstanding them. The recent story about the Earth’s rotation having stopped or reversing was a typical example.
6/ @skdh
You actually had to look at the damned paper and try to figure out what they mean by “differential rotation”. It wasn’t explained in the paper either, presumably because everyone who works in the field knows it.
7/ @skdh
Similar story with the recent “first link” between quantum chips that wasn’t a first. I could go on for some while with examples of this type. The issue now is that 95% of science news outlets just repeat the press release. There’s zero new information in there.
8/ @skdh
And you know I have a lot of understanding for that. I could save myself a LOT of work (and money) by just taking the press release and reading it off. I’d be wrong more often than not, but I could claim it isn’t my fault, I got it from the press release!
9/ @skdh
In any case, I guess the brief summary is that science reporting isn’t as easy as it looks.
Branches: 2023-02-18-benjmakesmovies-all-reporting-is-hard-there-used-to-be-an, 2023-02-18-kepleruhr-even-ole-roemer-did-face-the-weak-press-release, 2023-02-18-sneakin-where-is-this-feed-of-news-not-fit-for-the-news, 2023-02-18-comradeKangaroo-you-almost-got-it-have-you-read-manufacturing, 2023-02-18-hartreefox-university-pr-blurbs-on-research-conducted-at, 2023-02-18-efagirard-a-useful-rule-of-thumb-is-to-assume-that-general, 2023-02-18-Burchoff-thank-you-for-the-work-you-do, 2023-02-18-KhrisWithAc-is-there-a-way-to-attach-sources-link-to-your-yt, 2023-02-18-streetsofboston-i-think-the-same-is-true-for-studies-when-a-press, 2023-02-18-BendlerBlogger-so-who-approves-of-those-releases, 2023-02-18-BigwetRealism-science-communication-is-probably-a-tough-cookie, 2023-02-18-GordonBrianR-to-you-have-a-sense-about-what-the-incentives-are, 2023-02-19-WikiFever-that-says-a-lot-about-a-lot, 2023-02-19-FartInTheHat-i-watch-your-youtube-channel-and-i-respect-the, 2023-02-19-PeterFaberSP-you-do-a-good-job-though-do-you-have-a-team, 2023-02-19-m_newman-from-my-experience-the-people-who-write-the-press, 2023-02-19-TedMoondust-q-what-is-the-ultimate-purpose-of-a-typical, 2023-02-19-AmdredLambda-resuming-the-problem-is-between-science-and, 2023-02-19-SuperfancyJames-to-quote-the-movie-the-right-stuff-without-bucks, 2023-02-19-DanzigSaraiya-why-you-dont-get-more-attention-than-ndt-ill, 2023-02-19-nathanaelmelia-this-is-most-problematic-in-physics-there-is-an, 2023-02-19-gardenbev-hang-in-there-this-is-really-important-stuff-yes, 2023-02-20-design_corinne-the-first-aim-of-a-press-release-is-to-get, 2023-03-22-acryland-my-ex-went-through-an-entire-grad-program-for