Scarcity amid abundance in reporting science

My local newspaper, the Washington Post, like others in the US, has been reducing its coverage of science for years. Granted, stories about astronomy, health, and the environment continue to appear, but not in a science section and not written by a reporter whose expertise, experience, and beat is science.

Science’s lowly status at the Post is reflected by the paper’s website, where you’ll find neither a tab nor a link labeled “Science.” Anyone who browses the website for science needs to know in advance that stories about biology, chemistry, or physics are collected under national news—even when the newsworthy research is carried out abroad.

Now it’s quite possible that the Post, CNN, the Dallas Morning News, and other outlets that cut their science coverage did so because news about science isn’t as popular as other fare. The hypothesis isn’t fanciful. Thanks to the web, it’s easy for editors and publishers to discover what kinds of stories people click on the most. Maybe science stories are like green vegetables served to children: edifying, but unloved.

On the other hand, US newspapers—far more than their counterparts in the UK and Japan, the two other countries I’ve lived in—rely on advertising revenue. If a section doesn’t attract ads, its popularity won’t save it from the axe, as last year’s demise of the Post’s standalone Books section evinced.

But whatever the plight of science reporting, one thing stands out in blunt, ironic contrast: It’s never been easier for journalists to find science stories. Every day, public information officers at universities, journals, funding agencies, national labs, and professional societies issue press releases. To get a sense of the PR cornucopia, visit the Breaking News section of EurekAlert!, an online clearinghouse for press releases run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

At least one online outlet, Science Daily , exploits the flood of press releases to the hilt. There, you’ll find the same press releases as on EurekAlert!, identified by their sources but not flagged as PR.

What to make of the scarcity of science reporting amid the abundance of press releases? Although I’m in the news business, and although I respect and value the work of public information officers, I think scientists should redouble their efforts to reach the public directly.

The public could indeed have a limited appetite for daily science news. But as the growing popularity of New York’s annual World Science Festival and other science fairs attests, the public is still hungry.