The Talking Heads Are Not Always Right

• Have public media and journalists contributed to confusion and doubt about climate change? What can/should they do to present science and scientific debate accurately on this topic?

Yes, Public media and journalists have contributed to the confusion about climate change. Though I would not attribute all of the confusion to the media nor would I say that they are entirely at fault. The media has an obligation to report news and facts, but when they are fed poor information they add to the confusion. Media is often feed information and those when they are told by an expert that “cigarette smoke does not cause health issues” or “climate change is not a problem” and they report that information on the word of said expert, it is hard to blame the media for adding to the confusion. To help remedy the confusion that builds they could take a few steps. I think first and foremost they should do background checks of the experts and the scientific work they are presenting as fact. By doing this they will be able to reduce the false information they are potentially publishing. Secondly, media could hesitate to inform the public about scientific issues and debates. If the media companies would observe happenings in the scientific world and the debates that follow and wait until there is some kind of agreement on what the fact is they can further be sure that they are only publishing fact. Taking these two little steps can help to reduce confusion and doubt about scientific research and fact.