Research Catalog

It ain't necessarily so : how media make and unmake the scientific picture of reality

Title: It ain't necessarily so : how media make and unmake the scientific picture of reality / by David Murray, Joel Schwartz, and S. Robert Lichter.
Author: Murray, David, 1946-
Publication: Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers : Distributed by National Book Network, [2001], ©2001.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Request in advance	PN4784.T3 M87 2001	Off-site

Additional Authors

Description

xv, 249 pages; 24 cm

Summary

"Airplane crashes, the AIDS epidemic, presidential election polls and voting results, global warming, the latest cancer scare - all these news stories require scientific savvy, first to report, and then - for news consumers - to understand. It Aint Necessarily So cuts through the miasma surrounding media reporting of scientific studies, surveys, and statistics.
Whether the problem is bad science, media politics, or a simple lack of information or knowledge, this book gives news consumers the tools to penetrate the hype and dig out the facts."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Bibliography (note)

Contents

Introduction: Making News and Making Sense: The News That's "Fit to Print" -- Pt. I. The Ambiguity of News. Ch. 1. The News that isn't there: Stories That Are - and Aren't - Covered. Ch. 2. Much Ado About Little: Making News Mountains out of Research Molehills -- Pt. II. The Ambiguity of Measurement. Ch. 3. Bait and Switch: Understanding "Tomato" Statistics. Ch. 4. The Perils of Proxies: Is There a There There? Ch. 5. Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full? A Look at Statistics from Both Sides Now. Ch. 6. Polls Apart: The Gertrude Stein Approach to Making Sense of Contradictory Surveys. Ch. 7. The Reality and Rhetoric of Risk: Telling It Like It Is - and Isn't. Ch. 8. Distinguishing "Reports" from Reality: Confusing the Map with the Territory -- Pt. III. The Ambiguity of Explanation. Ch. 9. Blaming the Messenger, Ignoring the Message: Do Motives Matter? Ch. 10. Tunnel Vision and Blind Spots: The Danger of Hedgehog Interpretations.
Conclusion: Hard to Tell: Journalism, Science, and Public Policy - An Inherent Conflict?

ISBN

0742510956 (alk. paper)

LCCN

00066464

OCLC

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries