Tuesday 28 September 2010

An article about an article

Here's a brilliant spoof by Martin Robbins at the Guardian's Lay Scientist - how to write a science article of thoroughly mediocre quality that gives science its current illustriously stupid and confusing name.

The comments are also a good giggle, and don't forget to move your mouse over the links at the end to see what they really are. (You don't have to click on them.)

I hope you laugh as much as I do. And rap my knuckles if you catch me doing any of it.


If it made you grin, you might also chuckle at the "Daily Mail Reporter"'s tweets, too. (If you're not in the UK, the Daily Mail is one of Murdoch's many tabloid newspapers and is not famed for its sense of civilisation, proportion, rationality, or . . . well, you get the picture.) I first noticed this guy (or girl?) when they tweeted: "Have you ever known, met or slept with anyone famous? The Daily Mail would like to hear from you." Scenes of a mass bombardment on the way . . .

Update: Martin has followed up his post with a serious look at what could be done to improve science journalism, also very well worth a read.

1 comment:

Sakib said...

It really infuriates me when science journalism uses weasel words and doesn't even mention the main scientists or institute! Also it really annoys me when people seem to think Wikipedia is a reliable source of information, nearly every astronomy related article either has mistakes or outdated information.
Even worse are TV news reports, a piece on the Large Hadron Collider on the BBC News had the Dr Who theme tune in the background!!! A report on the discovery of the most massive star this year had the Star Wars theme tune in the background!!! Why does mainstream scientific journalism treat the public as gormless idiots with only one brain cell? This is one of the reasons that people have so many misconceptions of science and scientists and dated stereotypes continue to be reinforced.