2. In there self-defense Star says they provided "balanced" account. Some problems with that.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
3. What does "balanced" mean when one side are actual scientists with studies & other side is fear-mongering anecdotes?
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Replying to @HeerJeet
4. But "balanced" is also wrongheaded given how we read and process a news article.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
5. When we read a scientific paper, statistics count, anecdotes don't. Reverse is true when we read a newspaper feature.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
6. Humans are narrative-consuming animals, which is why anecdotes are powerful things. In reporting they have to be used responsibly.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
7. To some degree, science is an attempt to move beyond anecdotage into a higher order of generalization, scrubbed of distorting specificity
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Replying to @HeerJeet
8. In Star article, anecdotes were set in contrast to statistics (as spurious balance). It's the anecdotes that will live in reader's mind
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Replying to @HeerJeet
9. What makes the Star article so dangerous is that in traditional sense the reporting is "good" (i.e. vivid, heart-breaking stories).
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Replying to @HeerJeet
10. One problem with the Star is that it adopted crusading investigative mode of "we're-going-to-get-to-bottom-of-this"
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Replying to @HeerJeet
11. Under Michael Cooke, crusading investigative mode has worked well for breaking huge stories (Ford, Ghomeshi, Ornge).
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12. For science journalism, crusading investigative mode is far less useful than for political and celebrity scandals.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
13. To be sure, crusading investigative mode good for stories like cigarette companies lying about health consequences of smoking.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
14. But most science stories are not like Watergate. They take place in public debates, not private conspiracies.
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