Comments on: A press release title that irks me

By: Abstracts are supposed to be technical « Clastic Detritus

Abstracts are supposed to be technical « Clastic Detritus — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:22:48 +0000

[...] is for. Although I’ve complained about some press releases in the past (e.g., here and here), I read them essentially everyday and am more often than not satisfied with the information they [...]

By: BrianR

BrianR — Tue, 20 May 2008 01:28:30 +0000

Let me add … I agree with you and do think it’s an interesting topic/paper, which perhaps someone could start another thread to discuss if they’d like (as some of the modeling is out of my realm).

By: BrianR

BrianR — Tue, 20 May 2008 01:09:07 +0000

Hmmm … it’s not the headline writer, it’s everybody else’s fault for being misled?

Sure, I’ll concede that a reader needs to be savvy enough to not be misled … fair enough … but to suggest headline writers play no role in a headline that has potential to mislead strikes me as a bit odd. If that’s the case, they can write whatever they want, if it’s crappy … too bad, it’s the reader’s fault!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 20 May 2008 00:53:06 +0000

I’m not missing your point; I thought that all had been said and I wanted to talk about the paper itself. I respect your crankiness because I’m cranky too, but I’m not cranky about this. “Hot Climate Could Shut Down Plate Tectonics” just makes me laugh. To me the problem (to the extent that there even is one) is not the headline writer, it’s the blogger or journalist who can’t comprehend the content of the press release and just parrots the headline. The headline is there just to snag likely readers. It snagged me because it told me, oh, here’s something about high-level modeling of plate tectonics. Woody Allen had an old joke about learning to speed-read and then going through “War and Peace” in 15 minutes. When you’re scanning headlines, all you need to know is that, as he said, “It’s about Russia.” I don’t think a press-release title misleads the public . . . maybe as much as tabloid headlines do.

By: Lab Lemming

Lab Lemming — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:21:33 +0000

I’ll need to read it again, but they seem to be neglecting slab pull…

By: Silver Fox

Silver Fox — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:39:56 +0000

Maybe I could ask my retired former-geologist dad about that time frame – he was given a “Media Correction Tool” long before he retired – a large, thick stick or plank, with which to “correct” all the times the media misquoted him (newspapers, mostly). Probably he would say it’s always been that way – or at least for 20 years!

By: BrianR

BrianR — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:41:48 +0000

R2K … very good point, I remember when the Science Channel was less flashy and sensationalized, it wasn’t that long ago. Am I getting older and crankier (a real possibility), or has the reporting/portrayal of science fundamentally changed in just the last 5-10 years?

By: R2K

R2K — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:27:48 +0000

Bad science news is always an issue, as is bad science TV. There is a channel, called the science channel. With a name like that, you would expect them to do an above average (or I dare say, good) job at making a show about science. I have now counted about half a dozen shows that were just really bad. One was all about how the first moon landing was in constant peril.

An astronaut reported on the cherencov radiation inside their eyes (blue streaks keeping them awake). The astronaut said, correctly perhaps, that these were high Z particles, that is with massive nuclei. The narrator continues saying “These Z particles…” No they are not called Z particles, some new kind of super X-ray… they are described as high Z. So the makers of the show clearly didnt understand what high z means, and decided to go on anyway calling them Z particles.

Just one of many examples, and yes I wind up yelling at the TV which is not a normal thing to do.

By: BrianR

BrianR — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:26:06 +0000

Andrew says: “I’d read Lenardic’s work under any title.”

Your completel missing my point. Your not the kind of semi-interested-in-science-news person I’m talking about. You run an entire blog about geology and know the author by name and reputation. You are an expert within the context of the general public.

Google ‘climate stop plate tectonics’ or other variations and you’ll find some blogs/forums where the kind of misconstruing and misunderstanding I’m talking about are occurring. Sure … all of us know this has nothing to do with anthropogenic global warming, but my point is that it’s not surprising some are taking it out of context given the title of the press release. That is my point … i’ll say it again, i’m not annoyed at the paper itself, the authors, the topic, and so on and so forth.

By: Lab Lemming

Lab Lemming — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:51:07 +0000

There’s a paywall there.