‘Science’ Reporting in the Mainstream Media: An Analytical Study

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‘Science’ Reporting in the Mainstream Media: An Analytical Study

Journal Title: Journal of Advanced Research in Journalism & Mass Communication - Year 2017, Vol 4, Issue 3

Abstract

The laws of Nature are revealed to human beings through science. Technology involves the application of science to invent, innovate and improvise newer machines, products and services. So the role of science journalist is much required in the society. Science journalists must be able to inform their audiences about scientific efforts and results from different perspectives - political, economical and social. It is important that science journalists show how science actually works? That goes beyond just articles about interesting developments in science but includes also information about the organization and funding of scientific research, the entanglement with industry and other interest groups and the way scientific results are used. The issue of Science Reporting is worthy enough to get more attention. We as humans are considered as curious people, equipped with a lively sense of wonder. Important scientific and technological content should be properly reported in the media. What to do about climate change, how to organize human or robotic exploration of space, how to develop a sustainable national energy policy, how to treat the health potential offered by embryonic stem cells, and the like. The answers of such questions can be reported through Science Journalism. We are living in the age of Social Media. Every citizen of the country is promoting the concept of citizen journalism by expressing their views on different issues through social media. Face book and Twitter are very popular platform of information gathering and sharing. Most of the information or issues are related to social, political and entertainment but Science and Technology based stories are mostly not very well covered and presented by traditional media i.e. print or electronic media, not even in emerging social media. India is known as world’s third largest reservoir of technical and scientific manpower. The Department of Science and Technology (DST) of the Government of India looks after the policy planning and administrative details of the largest chain of national laboratories, still there is lack of science reporting in the media? Given the breadth of the subject, this paper will focus primarily on the mainstream news media, particularly newspaper/news channel coverage of science.

Authors and Affiliations

Arunesh Kumar Dwivedi

Keywords

EP ID EP273307
DOI -
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