Monday, June 13, 2011
News Releases are Sources
I discovered Ben Goldacre’s blog “Bad Science” while reading the most recent NASW newsletter (Spring 2011) , but it was originally blogged Mar 19, 2011.
Ben Goldacre Blog: Why don’t journalists link to primary sources?
Goldacre proposes that journalists should link to and cite news releases, and, as a champion of news releases, I agree. It’s such a novel and imminently sensible thing to do. But I don’t think it will happen. While sensible, it is an unlikely outcome. The sheer energetic inhibitions amongst journalists to cite news releases (thermodynamic issue) mitigate against it.
The bottom line, Ben says: “Because linking sources is such an easy thing to do, and the motivations for avoiding links are so dubious, I’ve detected myself using a new rule of thumb: if you don’t link to primary sources, I just don’t trust you.”
Why don’t journalists link to and cite news releases? What might we do to change that bad habit? Let’s hear your comments.
Ben is a physician and science writer, and author of the book Bad Science .
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