Did you know that “Why the public appreciates science, but shows such little interest in news about science, is readily understood. Science lacks narrative, and often lacks practical application”? No narrative, and impractical too? Hmmphhh. The myriad technologies that have transformed society, birthed by science for the most part, are impractical? And it has plenty story to it — Characters, crisis, mystery, resolution, redemption (or a fall from grace), the whole arc — and anyway, where is the narrative in (highly popular) weather stories ?
The quote is from a new report, “Two Decades of American News Preferences,” from the Pew Research Center for the People and The Press. Interest in Science and Technology, it says, has fallen markedly. About a third of Americans said they followed them very closely in ’86-’89, compared to 16 percent in 2000-’06. The table, above, is at the top of the web page but one has to read deep into the online report to find discussion of it (it’s in the second pdf at the site).
Worth noting is Matthew Nisbet‘s entry on it over at his Framing Science blog, which brought it to The Tracker’s attention. Plus, the initial comment after Nisbet’s remarks points out a category change that might exaggerate any such trend. Absent in the period’s first years is “Health and Safety” , which may include sub-categories previously put in S&T. Nisbet notes other Pew studies concluding that environment and science account for 3 percent of news coverage, with health and medicine bringing another 4 percent. It’s not clear (in a quick read-through) whether the study accounts for the rise of web-based news.
Most encouraging to The Tracker is the report’s assertion that while news directors may be flooding the airwaves and, to some extent, news pages with cheap tabloid celebrity news, a separate Pew study and public surveys consistently find little professed interest in them (maybe people just don’t admit to it. By the same token, it’s plausible that many folks feign interest in science they don’t have … rather like varnishing a resume).
-CP
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