The Perception of Scientific Uncertainty in Science News Writing
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Riebeek, Holli
University of Washington-Seattle
2002

Abstract:

When science is represented in the news, articles can misrepresent uncertainty in one of two ways: either they make the science appear more uncertain than it is by focusing on controversy, or they make it appear more certain by focusing on the end result or the discovery. Paradoxically, the high degree of uncertainty that pervades the science covered in most news stories and that, in some cases, makes the science newsworthy, receives little attention. This is because journalists must reconcile the difference between uncertain science and an expectation that news is certain. Somewhere in the reconciliation, uncertainty often gets left out.