Misinformation: is science or the media the problem?

The media love to report scare stories about vaping. It’s no wonder so many smokers believe vaping is just as harmful. Who’s to blame?

The Science Media Centre exists to improve media reporting on controversial topics. However, poor-quality science leads to poor reporting; scientific journals provide journalists with a steady stream of weak and misleading studies, sometimes hyped by the press officers promoting them and by researchers themselves.

As public understanding of the relative risks of smoking versus alternative nicotine products continues to be at odds with the best evidence, Tom Sheldon will argue that it remains essential for responsible scientists to engage with journalists, helping them translate evidence for the public in a neutral way and to critically assess the robustness of new findings and claims.

Tom will explore the relationship between science and the media, what we can all do, why it’s not always the media’s fault, and some of the battles good science has won…as well as those it’s still losing. He’ll also try his best to persuade you not to feel too disheartened – but to explain why the fight for accurate media reporting can’t be won until research science gets its own house in order.