Choose a popular press newspaper or magazine article that describes a newly published scientific finding broadly related to a topic we cover in class and compare it to the original scientific paper.
If you are having trouble finding pairs of articles, look at the science section of a source like the New York Times or Science Daily. In the electronic version they almost always link back to the original scientific paper, either in the text of the article or as a citation at the end. If you can’t access this original paper, talk to me or one of the librarians about options.
List the bibliographic information for both articles (popular press article and the original scientific paper). I do not care what format you choose, but you must include all pertinent information (i.e. author, date, title, journal or newspaper title, page numbers, URL, etc.)
Describe the topic the papers cover briefly (don’t spend your whole time summarizing the articles).
How does the popular press coverage differ from the original paper? Does it provide an incomplete or skewed version of the findings? Does it dumb it down? Or does it do a particularly good job translating scientific jargon into laymen’s terms? Does it contextualize the findings?
How does this popular press treatment of a scientific article impact the way it is understood by the public at large?
Include suggestions for how both the popular version and the original research article could improve their presentation of the information.
Did you learn anything from this assignment? Will this impact the way you read and interpret popular presentations of scientific information in the future?
Your critique should be approximately 500 words (this is about one page, single-spaced or three lengthy paragraphs). Length is not everything, but I will not give you full credit if your essay is significantly shorter than 500 words because you will not have developed your arguments fully.
You can use informal language in your critique, but please check your spelling and grammar.
