This document summarizes a lecture and seminar discussion about the relationship between science and journalism. In the lecture, key points were that journalism about science is often inaccurate, with facts getting rewritten or exaggerated. The seminar discussed whether journalism is an art or a science, noting that while science is factual, not all journalism aims for objectivity. Some argued journalism should pursue truth and facts as closely as possible. The author realized journalism could be considered a science if based on research and experimentation to find the truth, though fabricating information is easy without scientific knowledge.

1. JOURNALISM AND SOCIETY:
TERM 3, WEEK 1
24-04-2017
SCIENCE AND JOURNALISM

2. THE LECTURE
This week was all about science and journalism and how the two relate.
KEY POINTS FROM THE LECTURE
• A lot of the time, journalism to do with science is not always accurate, and facts can often be re-written,
for example, Pluto not counting as a planet anymore because of its size.
• Some journalists do not have sufficient knowledge to write down science related journalism, because
often the can get it wrong, an example of this is the glacier in Arizona and how the journalist wanted
you to believe it has all melted.
• There can be a case where journalists cherry-pick information or exaggerate date and information for
their own agenda and make the public think something is happening or make them believe something
is a bigger issue that it actually is.

3. THE SEMINAR
A key question posed in this seminar was: IS JOURNALISM AN ART OR A SCIENCE?
In the seminar, it was discussed how there are very few journalists who have a science background.
• This was also the case in our classroom since many of had not had a very scientific background either.
We also discussed how journalism could be aspiring to the status of a science, but science is mainly factual,
however, not all journalism is factual since not every piece of journalism is objective. However, you can
aspire to be objective in journalism.
We also discussed the difference between facts, storytelling and truth and journalism and intergrity. What
is the best way to tell a story?
• Many of us agreed that it is important in journalism to be as truthful as possible.
We went on to speak about science being the pursuit of knowledge and how it in not an ideology, but is
based on facts.
Social sciences was also discussed, where I said that social sciences are not very scientific from my
experience, however they can relate to journalism.

4. MY THOUGHTS
Before the seminar, I never really thought about journalism being a science more than it is an art, however,
after the seminar I realised that it could be argued as one. This is because science is based on facts, and
journalism can be based on facts too. When reporting a story, a journalist should state the facts and get
closer to finding the truth through researching and experimenting. This is also similar in science, where a
scientist would keep on experimenting and researching to find something out.
Therefore, even though many may not think of journalism as being a science, it can be classed as one
depending on the type of journalism it is.
I also think that it is easy to fabricate information and make things up, especially if you are a journalist who
is reporting on science but have no knowledge of the scientific issue you are reporting on. Which is why it
is always important to do your research, especially when people can come across a piece of journalism and
think it’s true when it clearly is not.