Cosmic Thoughts

Science in the Media

Okay, so the new Cosmos series premiered last night, and I’ve been amused and gratified to see a large spectrum of people commenting on it on Twitter, Facebook, and other places. I like that it is inspiring people to look at science again. The series was designed to do that. Science is a part of our culture, so there something very human about wanting to know more about it and the universe we live in. Having that interest doesn’t make you a science “geek”, although that certainly seems to be an interesting “bin” that the mainstream media likes to put people in. I guess it’s just too easy to categorize people by something so profound as their interest in the cosmos. Certainly the series doesn’t do that. It  brings it right out, lays science in front of you, and guides you through the whole story of the cosmos. I like that. Science is what real human beings do to understand their surroundings.

Back when I was first writing for a newspaper about astronomy and planetary science, I caught a  whiff of this “science ghetto” from my editors. I’d propose a story and they would try to figure out how it was going to fit into the “science page”. I had one editor tell me that regular people didn’t want to see that stuff in the morning news, as if science wasn’t part of regular people’s lives. Today, I see newspapers and other media outlets stuff science interest into the “geek bin”. I’ve talked with news page designers who can’t figure out where to put science — I’ve seen it in Tech sections, Education sections, and occasionally it’s “science” but prettied up so readers don’t get turned off.  I don’t know why they do this.  Hiding science, calling people who do and like to know about science “geeks” and “nerds”, just makes the subject seem scarier. Then, the media outlets can talk about how science is scary and isn’t that a shame, tut-tut.  Well, they’re part of the problem.

Many media studies have gone into the ghetto-ization of science news, and to be honest, I really thought we’d gone beyond that tendency to geek-ize people, and to segment an entire subject of human inquiry for the sake of a catchy word that the SEO department can use to gather clicks.

Here’s my advice: if you want to know how the universe works, search it out. The information is there — it’s a cool journey. And, the new Cosmos series (despite some issues I have with some production bits) is a guide for you. Watch it. Let me know what you think!